Greenwood Lake

Greenwood Lake covers about 2,043 acres in Cook County, in the Gunflint Ranger District just south of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness boundary. It's a drive-to lake rather than a paddle-in one: you reach it by following Greenwood Lake Road off the Gunflint Trail to a concrete boat launch, and none of the wilderness entry points nearby connect to it by portage.

The lake is deep and cold for its size, built on Canadian Shield bedrock with rocky shoals scattered through it and two distinct deep basins, one near the center and another out in the eastern bay. At 112 feet at its deepest point, it holds enough cold water to support lake trout year round, and its 23 miles of shoreline give it room to fold around bays and low points instead of running as one open sweep.

Lake trout are the reason people fish Greenwood. The population is self-sustaining and hasn't needed restocking since 1993, and it shares the depths with lake whitefish and cisco. Brook trout turn up too, while northern pike and smallmouth bass work the shallower water and rocky structure closer to shore.

Motors are allowed on Greenwood, and the shoreline looks the part: roughly 55 homes and cabins sit along it next to the public landing. The lake carries a single designated campsite, nothing like the run of paddle-in sites spread across a wilderness lake this size.

Greenwood suits a lake trout trip out of a cabin or a day launched from the public landing more than a wilderness stay. It sits just outside the BWCA boundary, with the motors, homes, and road access that come with that, rather than the portages and quota campsites of the lakes beyond it.