Hello All,

I am planning to take my teenage daughters on a BWCA trip, ideally out of Ely as I would love to experience this town.

We plan to day trip in and then return each night to sleep so I am looking for an outfitter that offers lodging on-site. Any suggestions here?

Would also like to hear suggestion for entry points and day trips that would be a good introduction for some first timers. Two of the girls are really into photography.

Thanks!

Also looking for suggestions on outfitters with a campground on-site based out of Ely. Thanks!

Probably the easiest route is to rent a cabin from Kawishiwi Lodge on Lake One. That puts you right on the edge of a paddle only BWCA lake. From there you can explore Lake One and the lakes connected to it or go the other way down the Kawishiwi River. If you want to drive to a variety of lakes then there are many cabin opportunities closer to town. You will be on motor lakes but can rent a canoe and car top to a variety of entry points (such as Hegman for the pictographs). For day trips, we've done Hegman a few times, gone up the Kawishiwi River from White Iron (through Garden and Farm before entering the BW), and Lake One (both into Lake One and down the river from the Entry Point). My wife takes lots of pictures and has gotten great shots on all of these trips. It's just a beautiful place.

Scan down through this section and you will find a number of threads on day trip possibilities.

Like Andym said.....
Kawishiwi Lodge, on Lake One at the end of the Fernberg Road, does a nice job and the Number Lakes (1-2-3-4) are a good starting point. My daughter's church women's trip always stays there.

Canoe Country has cabins on Moose Lake. Makes a Quetico day trip possible, and close to Snowbank.

You might check the lakes you want to travel. I prefer to avoid the busy Motor Lakes for day trips. The outfitters buzz up and down Moose and Fall.

A day trip on the Little Indian Sioux river up to Devils Cascade would give you a couple of waterfalls to photograph. Pipestone Falls (starting at Fall Lake) is very pretty and within daytrip distance.

JD

quote jdevries: "A day trip on the Little Indian Sioux river up to Devils Cascade would give you a couple of waterfalls to photograph. Pipestone Falls (starting at Fall Lake) is very pretty and within daytrip distance.


JD "

Those are both nice trips.

The Fall Lake USFS campground is a very nice up to date place with showers etc. The day trip paddling up to Newton Lake or even on into Pipestone Bay is nice as well. As Grandma L. has pointed out, some outfitters and fishermen are there in power boats but I have never found them to be too annoying.

Bill

quote atforest: "Also looking for suggestions on outfitters with a campground on-site based out of Ely. Thanks!"

Cliff Wold Outfitters has a basic campground not far from Ely. Not bad.

Don't necessarily limit yourselves to an outfitter on a lake, there are several great campgrounds near Ely with opportunities to put in right from your campsite or very nearby. If you need to rent a canoe, any outfitter will help you load it up on your car for the short trip to the campground. If you enjoy camping and being outdoors more than a cabin or lodge this is a great option. Being an avid photographer myself I know that the more time outdoors means more interesting photo ops.

Local campgrounds include Fall lake as already mentioned, Fenske Lake, Birch Lake and South Kawishiwi. All offer beautiful water to paddle, nearby BWCA access and proximity to Ely. These are all Superior National Forest campgrounds; Fall lake would be the only one with shower facilities but is also the busiest.

Here's a link to the Superior National Forest information pages for these campgrounds, look under the Kawishiwi area and click.

Ely area campgrounds

Have fun.

If you do the town, visit the Dorothy Moulter Museum. Good food at Ely Steakhouse, Sir G's, and Brittons breakfast

Thank you all for the suggestions here. I did some additional reading on the message board and ended up going to Fall Lake campground for 2 nights. I was able to get the last first-come, first-serve site on the lake. We rented canoes from Pack Sack outfitters and they delivered the canoes right to the entry point/boat dock on Fall Lake. Spent one full day on Fall Lake, the rapids between Fall and Newton, and Newton - the girls had a lot of fun hiking and fishing around the river. We did take a break from the canoes and made the short hike to the Kawishiwi falls. Spent most of the second day on and around one of the sand beach campgrounds on Fall Lake. Overall a great trip and a nice introduction to the BWCA - there is already talk of what to do on our next trip.