Winter vacation in Northern Minnesota

Winter is Cool! Enjoy a Winter Wonderland Vacation.

Winter brings a special magic to Borderland. Rainy Lake serves up picture postcard scenes and plenty of outdoor recreation. Voyageurs National Park maintains trails and ice roads so you can get out and enjoy the icy beauty. There are also trails and ice roads outside of the Park.

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Minnesota Snowmobiling at its Best

Snowmobilers love riding our area because of the miles and miles of nicely groomed trails traveling through the beauty of the National Park and across the frozen surface of the large lakes. Trails interconnect to other popular areas in the Arrowhead Region so you can plan plenty of different rides. The Chain of Lakes trail on the Kabetogama Peninsula is a particularly beautiful trail.

It’s very convenient that you can access any of our Lodging facilities by snowmobile. All the Lodges on Rainy Lake are connected by trails and the Blue Ox Trail in International Falls provides easy access to all the motels. This also means you have easy access to all the trails from wherever you choose to stay for your snowmobiling vacation.
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The local club sponsors events like vintage snowmobile rides, family fun weenie roasts and radar runs for charity. Check our Calendar of Events for specifics.

Trail Conditions

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​Ice Fishing for the Angler or Spear Fisherman

Rainy Lake is a popular ice fishing lake because the structure can tend to concentrate fish at winter hot spot areas. Some of the best are usually easily accessible by ice roads both within and outside of the Park. Anglers using portable gear are growing in numbers because they can head off the roads to areas where there will be much less angler pressure and just as good a bite.

Several bays on Rainy Lake are ideal for spear fishing northern pike and several of the best areas are easily accessible by ice road. Black Bay is a great spot to try spearing a trophy northern pike.

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​Cross Country Skiing or Snowshoeing

There’s a certain serenity that comes with the rhythmic sound of swooshing through the snow on cross country skis, and it becomes more of an experience when the trails wind through beautiful snow clad pines and hardwood forests glinting sunlight off of icy prisms. There are miles of cross country ski and snowshoe trails both in and out of the Park. Voyageurs National Park can provide skis or snowshoes at the Rainy Lake Visitor Center so you can enjoy any of the nearby trails.

Trail Map

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​Celebrate Winter in the Icebox of the Nation

Yes, International Falls has often been called names, but really, it’s not so cold we can’t enjoy winter. Icebox Days has been celebrating the season every January for nearly four decades. The main event in the celebration is the Freeze Yer Gizzard Blizzard Run, which attracts runners from all over the United States and Canada. 
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The Arrowhead 135 is another winter race that begins at Kerry Park in International Falls and then goes 135 miles south east to Fortune Bay on Lake Vermilion near Tower. Around 150 really well trained athletes compete on skis, on foot or on specially adapted bicycles.
There are many other events scheduled throughout the winter season, check the Calendar of Events for specifics.

Icebox Days

Arrowhead 135

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