Rainy Lake Visitor Center Grand Tour Cruise

Well, Happy Birthday to me!  It's August 17th and our last day here at Voyageurs National Park.  Tomorrow we start heading westward back to Logan, Utah - home base.  I've loved every minute of being in this place.  It exceeded my expectations!  Scott booked us tickets on the Grand Cruise out of the Rainy Lake Visitor Center that is right by International Falls, Minnesota on the Canadian border.  You're about as close to Canada as you can get without crossing the border.

We arrived early as requested.  Scott actually took the day off work today so we went into International Falls and snooped around.  Went to a grocery store - the food back in Kabetogama was super expensive.  Then, we had a little lunch and went over to the visitor center and checked in.  Did you know there is a Smokey Bear park in International Falls?  Yep, there is!

At the visitor center, I stamped my book and we looked at the small exhibits and shop.  This visitor center is open all year long and they have a lovely wood burning stove to warm the building in the off season.

Then, we headed outside to walk among the gardens before boarding.  The flowers are at the end of their life cycle but the bees and butterflies were still taking anything they could from them.  I thought the birch wood tee-pee was exceptional.

We were hoping to get a decent seat on the cruise.  We heard that they put all the passengers on the lower deck first for orientation, so we thought that if we were the last ones on, we could be the first ones off to get the upper deck.  And, it worked.  We got right up on the front row with nothing to obscure our views.  We stayed in those seats until we turned around and then gave them up for someone else to enjoy.  First we headed out via homes on the water and passed a few boaters.

On this cruise we were on the western side of Voyageurs.  The price was $30 each and well worth.  It's also the cruise for eagle watching!  Here's some views before we got to American Island.  It was late in the afternoon when we left, and some photos are a bit dark.

We docked at American Island and took a short quarter mile hike to see part of the 1890's Rainy Lake gold rush.  Our ranger guide was Tom Avery and he was great and shared a wealth of info with us.

The views from the American Island were gorgeous too!

Soon we re-boarded the boat and continued our journey and saw the mine cave entrance from the water.

After this we continued onward where we saw and heard eagles and eaglets!  The eaglet cries were really loud!

As we continued we saw more beautiful landscapes and old homes once occupied.  We also saw campers on some of the islands.  Some of the inlets were so wide you'd think they were deep, but actually just marshes with narrow passageways.

While cruising on the water, we saw a couple of houseboats docked in coves.

We kept going onward enjoying the scenery and then boom, we saw an eagle in a tree.

Soon after this, we came to the Harry Oveson old commercial fishing camp.  We didn't get off here - the dock was broken but we could see the old building.  At one time, you could get off her for picnicking.

From this point, we decided to move to the back of the boat so others could enjoy the front.  We enjoyed watching the waves the boat made.

From here we wanted to see where we were and pulled out the GPS as we headed back to Rainy Lake visitor center.  You can see how close to Canada we are.  We also ran across an interesting group of tourists having a party on their houseboat in the middle of the lake.  One guy kept sticking out his butt at us.  So weird!  They must have been drunk.

Soon, we arrived back and disembarked.  It was another fun day on the water.

Instead of heading back to Pine Aire, we went back into International Falls for a quick dinner at a local Mexican Restaurant called Barajas.  The food was pretty good.  Right after I took these photos, the place filled up with customers.  I guess we got there just in time!

It was a fun birthday and tomorrow we leave for North Dakota.