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Minnesota National Parks
Minnesota National Parks
Below is a list of Minnesota National Parks. Find detailed information on the National Park entries by clicking on their links.
Create an online Minnesota vacation itinerary
You can use WeGoPlaces.com to plan your Minnesota vacation itinerary! To begin, select from our list of Minnesota tourist attractions, activities, accommodations, events, restaurants or Minnesota vacation & visitor information entries. Click the "Add" button to add individual entries to your online Minnesota vacation itinerary.
Explore All Of Minnesota's Regions
You can find Minnesota tourist attractions and activities in all of Minnesota's regions: Duluth, Mankato, Rochester, Twin Cities and Other.
Featured Minnesota Tourist Attractions and Activities
Please visit our Minnesota featured listings - Disney on Ice: Princess Classics at Xcel Energy Center, Minnesota Vikings at Metrodome, Monster Jam at Metrodome, Wilco at DECC Auditorium and Jeff Dunham at Alltel Center.
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Grand Portage National Monument
National Monument
Category: Grand Portage National Park in Minnesota
Description of this Minnesota Attraction: On a hot sultry day in mid-July 1802, partners of the most successful fur trade company in North America, the North West Company, met in their majestic Great Hall at Grand Portage and voted to move their summer headquarters from the protected shores of Lake Superior’s Grand Portage Bay 50 miles north to the mouth of the Kaministquia River. Almost from the time the vigorous Anglo-Scot Nor’Westers had organized at Grand Portage in the mid 1780’s an emerging United States wanted them out. The July vote would mean that 18 buildings constructed from native squared spruce, pine and birch and over 2,000 cedar pickets surrounding them would be torn down, transported north in company schooners and used in constructing the new Fort William far from U.S. soil.
As early as 2,000 years ago, Indian Nations probably used Kitchi Onigaming “the Great Carrying Place” to travel from summer homes on Lake Superior to winter hunting grounds in the interior of Minnesota and Ontario. In 1729 Cree guide Auchagah drew a map for some of the first French fur traders showing them how to reach the "western sea" of Lake Winnipeg. Other Europeans would follow, in time, Grand Portage became the gateway into rich northern fur bearing country connecting remote interior outposts to lucrative international markets.
Reopened in 1951 as Grand Portage National Historic Site, designated a National Monument in 1958, its nearly 710 acres lying entirely within the boundaries of Grand Portage Ojibwe Indian Reservation, the reconstructed depot celebrates fur trade and Ojibwe lifeways. Today as yesterday, the people, the cultures and the land have much to share.
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Grand Portage National Monument
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Mississippi National River & Recreation Area
National River and Recreation Area
Category: Twin Cities Metropolitan Area National Park near Twin Cities, Minnesota
Description of this Twin Cities area Attraction: Used by Native Americans for trade, food, and water long before Europeans visited the “New World,” the Mississippi River and its watershed is a major contributor to the ecology, culture, politics and economy of the North American continent. To acknowledge this fact, Congress established the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area in 1988. The park’s boundaries enclose about 54,000 acres and 72 miles of river. They describe a narrow corridor of land on either side of the Mississippi from Dayton and Ramsey, MN on the north boundary past Hastings, MN on the south border. Only 35 acres are owned by the Park Service.
These 72 miles are a significant and representative stretch of the Mississippi. They contain the only gorge and waterfall on the main course of the entire 2,350 miles of river. Named St. Anthony Falls in 1680, the falls were later used to generate power for logging, flour milling, and electricity for a growing population. Less than ten miles away, the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers was an early outpost for the American military and an important crossroads for fur traders. Further downstream, St. Paul marked the upper end of steamboat navigation and was the jumping off place for tens of thousands of settlers. And the Vermillion River bottoms are excellent examples of floodplain forest ecology. From visitor centers to trails, from industrial centers to Mississippi River backwaters, this park has a bit of something for everyone.
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Mississippi National River & Recreation Area
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North Country National Scenic Trail
National Scenic Trail
Category: State of Minnesota National Park in Minnesota
Description of this Minnesota Attraction: The North Country National Scenic Trail links scenic, natural, historic, and cultural areas in seven northern states. The approximately four thousand mile long trail incudes a variety of hikes from easy walking to challenging treks.
When completed, through the efforts of many people, the trail will become the longest continuous hiking trail in the United States. From the Missouri River in North Dakota to the shores of Lake Champlain in New York, the trail allows hikers to experience a variety of features, from clear-flowing streams, to thick Northern woods, from vast prairies to clean lakes.
Come and experience your America, at a walking pace.
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Voyageurs National Park
National Park
Category: Crane Lake National Park in Minnesota
Description of this Minnesota Attraction: The park lies in the southern part of the Canadian Shield, representing some of the oldest exposed rock formations in the world. This bedrock has been shaped and carved by at least four periods of glaciation. The topography of the park is rugged and varied; rolling hills are interspersed between bogs, beaver ponds, swamps, islands, small lakes and four large lakes. In the years since the last glaciation, a thin layer of soil has been created which supports the boreal forest ecosystem, the "North Woods" of Voyageurs National Park.
This land is rich in human history. Named for the Voyageurs, French-Canadian canoe-men who traveled these waters in their birch-bark canoes from the Great Lakes to the interior of the western United States and Canada. Modern voyageurs continue to ply these waters. The water, accompanying scenery, geology and rich cultural and natural resources that give Voyageurs its national significance, merits its protection for the enjoyment of present and future generations.
On the northern edge of Minnesota's border, 55 miles of the park meander along the Canadian border with Ontario. Voyageurs is about 15 miles east of International Falls, MN and 300 miles north of Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN.
Voyageurs is a water based park. Access to the Kabetogama peninsula, the islands and nearly all of the park's shoreline is by watercraft. Free public boat ramps and parking are available at the park's visitor centers and at the Kabetogama State Forest Campgrounds. Open all year round with boating, fishing, and swimming in the summer and skiing, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling in the winter.
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Minnesota Travel Articles
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