Since 38% of the surface area of Voyageurs National Park is water, we wanted to spend at least some of our time in the park on the water. We chose to take a guided tour from the Rainy Lake visitor center aboard the Voyageur tour boat. The Grand Tour is a 20 mile, 2½ hour cruise on Rainy Lake that includes a short stop at Little American Island to explore the 1890's gold rush, viewing an historic commercial fishing camp, and searching for wildlife including bald eagles. Since Little American Island can be visited by anyone with access to a boat on Rainy Lake, I've written about it in a separate post here.
The tour costs $30 per adult (17 and older), $15 per child (3-16), and $3 for children (2 and under). A three person crew of park service employees includes the captain, a deckhand, and a naturalist (or interpreter). The tour has a minimum of 4 passengers and a maximum of 40. The Voyageur has an enclosed lower cabin and an open upper deck. In case of inclement weather, seating for all passengers is available in the enclosed cabin. Bottled water is sold on the boat and a marine toilet is also available.
We found the Grand Tour to be an excellent use of our time as we saw much more of the park than we would have on our own and we had a guide to point out some of the more interesting features of the Rainy Lake portion of the park. We visited in early August 2017.
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| Topographic map with GPS tour route |
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| Dock entrance to the visitor center |
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| Voyageur at the Rainy Lake visitor center dock |
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| Black Bay Narrows |
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| Small unnamed island that straddles the park boundary |
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| Black Bay Lookout Tower |
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| Dock at Little American Island |
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| East end of Little American Island |
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| West end of Little American Island |
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| Day marker on Big American Island |
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| Unnamed islands on Rainy Lake |
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| Bald eagle on a very small islet |
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| Another bald eagle |
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| Bushyhead Island |
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| Gold mining adit on Bushyhead Island |
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| Fledgling bald eagle in the nest |
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| Leaving the nest |
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| Soaring over the lake |
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| Rain on the horizon |
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| A pair of eagles soaring on the thermals |
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| An islet |
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| Another unnamed island |
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| Harry Oveson's Fish Camp |
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| Oveson house |
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| Ice house and fish processing building |
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| Picnic tables in the shade |
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| Small cove on the north side of Harry's island |
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| A foot bridge connects two parts of another unnamed island at the mouth of Cranberry Bay |
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| Bald eagle perched on a snag |
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| Wild rice near Arden Island |
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| Another islet |
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| A pair of bald eagles |
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| Beaver lodge |
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| A former landowner's cabin |
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| Rain on the horizon |
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| A bald eagle in flight |
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| Returning to the dock as the storm arrives |
Entry to Voyageurs National Park is free.
The park website is https://www.nps.gov/voya.
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