Garden Lake

Garden Lake covers about 653 acres in Lake County, roughly five miles east of Ely. It falls within the Kawishiwi district by the Forest Service's boundary lines, but the lake itself sits outside the wilderness: no portage connects to it from the interior, and it's reached by road and boat rather than by paddling in.

The lake is one of three connected basins, along with Farm Lake and South Farm Lake, that make up what's known locally as the Garden Reservoir, held at a set level by a hydroelectric dam at the outlet. It reaches 55 feet at its deepest, with a bottom of boulder, muck, and rubble along the shore. Vegetation stays sparse and doesn't grow past about six feet down, mostly wild rice and pondweed. The water runs brown with bog stain and averages 5 to 6 feet of clarity.

Walleye and northern pike anchor the fishery, both under a protected slot limit that requires releasing fish in the middle of the size range, which has helped push some individual fish larger. Walleye here grow more slowly than the regional average, but pike, cisco, yellow perch, and bluegill all show up in good numbers, and the bluegill in particular grow faster than most lakes nearby.

Garden Lake is developed by area standards, with homes, cabins, and two resorts along its shore. There's no wilderness campsite system here: a concrete boat ramp on the northwest corner off Fernberg Road offers the main public access, though parking is limited to a handful of vehicles with trailers, and a navigable channel connects it to Farm Lake for boats coming from that side.

Garden Lake suits a day of fishing out of Ely rather than a wilderness trip. It's a developed, dam-controlled reservoir lake at the edge of the BWCA, without the portages or campsites that define the lakes beyond it.