Day 6 started a little later than usual, but that didn’t really matter too much as there was only one thing on the itinerary to do; Voyageurs National Park. We got a few things from Walmart, ate our breakfast, and headed out.

On our hour plus drive to the park we encountered many deer (alive) and were able to observe them. It seems like every time we would get close enough to get a good picture, the deer would run into the tall grass or trees. The photo here was taken at the end of the day when we managed to keep a good distance away and safely pull off the road. We took a couple of small hiking paths to some scenic overlooks, saw a wide variety of wildlife, and watched two videos about the park at the Ash River Visitor Center before heading to the center of the park to Kabetagama Visitor Center. This visitor center offered some interactive exhibits I found very well done. I enjoyed spending some time there learning about wildlife, rocks formations, vegetation, etc. We opted not to take the drive to International Falls at the far west of the park due to time constraints and upon the advice of the ranger.

Voyageurs is a beautiful place to visit if you have more time for sure. Most of the best parts of the park are best accessed by boat, which I didn’t have and didn’t make reservations for (due to the uncertainty of when I would arrive at any given location). We decided to head to our camping spot early so we could relax a bit and make some hot food.

It didn’t rain this time, but we had an even bigger foe: Mosquitos! They are the worst I have ever encountered. The spot we stopped was perfect and secluded but we couldn’t really enjoy what it had to offer as we did our best to thwart them while cooking our dinner. Thankfully when we finished cooking and cleanup it was dark enough to consider sleeping (10:30 PM). Getting settled in the sound of the mosquitos outside was so loud that if I had the correct recording equipment I could have captured a great audio sample to share.

I started writing this blog about the time we decided to call it the early night. I had the laptop screen and a small lantern on so I could see my notes. I got a little over a paragraph written before a mini mosquito invasion began. They were finding their way through the screen mesh. I decided not to encourage them so I quickly turned off the lantern and shut down the computer. That was the night.