Before many of the boat tours and rentals are running for the summer season, having your own watercraft is clutch in Voyageurs. But if you do, the park is practically all yours.

We did not have reservations ahead of time, but we’d highly recommend it during the summer season, because we were told they usually fill up. We visited in early summer, before many park events and tours had begun, so we beat most of the crowds.

The site we had in the Rainy Lake area, site #R67, was amazing. It wasn’t too tough to get out there in our inflatable kayak from the mainland (maybe an hour or so?) and we were able to navigate the islands just fine.

Our site had incredible views of both the sunset and sunrise, and since we were on our own small island, it felt truly special.

The site came with a picnic table, a sandy area to dock our kayak, and an in-ground pit toilet. Don’t forget bug spray! And if it’s a nice night, we’d suggest keeping off your rain fly. :)

We only stayed here for one night before returning to the mainland to drive south to access Lake Kabetogama and kayak out to our next campsite in Locator Lake.

The whole park is beautiful, but we’d recommend not visiting in the off-season if you don’t have your own kayak or boat. The heart of the park is on the water!

You can read much more about our four days in the park on our blog: Switchback Kids (Voyageurs)