Voyageurs National Park Family Vacations

You have to step off land and glide across the water to best enjoy this 218,000-acre park along the border of Canada and the northern edge of Minnesota. At least 84,000 of those acres is water with five major lakes, 500 islands and 655 miles of shoreline.

This is a place to get away and get a sense of what fur-carrying voyageurs saw when they used these waterways to travel inland in the 1800s before westward migration, wagons and trains. It's not a place to rely on cell phones or GPS. This is a mostly off-the-grid vacation and a chance to see one of the country's least-crowded national parks. And that's a big part of its charm.

Three decades old, Voyageurs is one of the youngest national parks, yet its rocky coastlines boast some of oldest exposed rocks on the planet. Kids (and parents) who can't grasp 2.7 billion years old can think of these rocks another way: They were here long before the Grand Canyon was carved or the Rockies rose up.

Rocky islands, rugged outcrops, cliffs and rounded formations are stitched together with deep-green swaths of boreal forest among the blue lakes and rivers. You might catch sight of a mammoth moose at the edge of bogs, paddle past a beaver in the morning fog, catch an otter sliding into the water, pass a bald eagle in its nest and hear the hauntingly beautiful call of a loon while drifting to sleep on one of the island campsites.

These lakes were the equivalent of an Interstate in the late 1700s and early 1800s and a key part of the voyageurs' 3,000-mile journey inland. The tenacious French-Canadians heaped birchbark canoes with beaver pelts from trappers and Native Americans. They paddled 16 hours a day to make the journey before winter set in.

The demand for pelts was huge in Europe, and many hatters truly went mad from toxic chemicals used to turn beaver fur into highly fashionable hats. Parkland was later used for the 1893 gold rush, logging and commercial fishing, with remnants of these industries found among the islands and forest. A variety of park tour boat excursions explore these areas, including the Ellsworth Rock Gardens with 150 sculptures and flowers beds.

Both the wilderness area and national park -- far from the hustle-bustle of cities -- offer seclusion, adventure, and a place for kids to run wild and use their imagination. In the quiet hours of morning, sitting on ancient rocks, it's easy to imagine voyageurs and Native Americans paddling out of the mist.