Bear Head Lake State Park for the Northwoods Win
Fall is nearly over and you’re itching to get up to the north woods at least one more time, but where does one start in Minnesota’s North Country? The land is vast and there are thousands of miles of state parks, forests, and let’s not even get into the federal lands. Well fear not, arguably the most Minnesotan state park exists just outside of Ely, called Bear Head Lake State Park. Nestled deep in the Northland Bear Head Lake is within a stone’s throw of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and the Superior National Forest. However, you can drive into this park and maintain all of your creature comforts.
Located just 20 minutes south of Ely. Bear Head Lake State Park offers a variety of activities or leisure. Canoes and kayaks can be rented on site to lily dip and derp around. Fishing is prime at dawn and dusk. There are miles of trails within the park. Swimming is encouraged (even late in the season) and you have to stop at the modern trail center, a truly beautiful wood framed structure that would make Paul Bunyan proud.
Another fun idea would be to make Bear Head Lake a meetup destination for the Taconite state trail. Rolling from Grand Rapids to Ely this state trail is traveled by foot, horse, or snowmobile in the winter. If you’re hiking, I suggest having a group of friends rendezvous here to welcome you. You all can catch up in the nicest comforts of this building. This structure is built with timber frames, wooden pegs, and screams hot chocolate after a long nordic ski.The trail center is waiting for warm days and nights filled with merriness and warm beverages.
If you’re itching to get a small town experience cruise into Ely or Tower. Tower offers minor amenities and a great tour of one the world’s largest underground mines is in nearby Soudan. Ely is a town fully converted from mining to tourism. There are art galleries, high end outfitters, bars, cafes and a cute folk school. This town is also home to both the North American Bear Center and the International Wolf Center. To say the least Ely has more than a day’s worth of entertainment complete with a Dorthy Molters Rootbeer tour. If you are not familiar, Dorthy Molter was the final person to live within the Boundrary Water’s Canoe Area Wilderness. After pleading with her, the feds conceded and made her an unofficial ranger station. For years she welcomed paddlers and treated them to her homemade birch root beer. Her home has been moved into the town of Ely where you can take a tour and enjoy sweet suds.
Bear Head Lake State Park is one of the easiest ways to enjoy Minnesota’s north woods all year long. The park is complete with a few all season cabins and is full of snow mobile and cross ski trails in the cold season. Take the leap, the pines, sunsets and loons are waiting for you.
