Lac La Croix

Lac La Croix is one of the largest lakes in the Boundary Waters, spanning roughly 29,600 acres in the La Croix district along the U.S.-Canada border, with Quetico Provincial Park on the far shore. Paddlers reach it from the Little Indian Sioux River entry points to the east, or by motor from Little Vermilion Lake to the west.

The lake folds around dozens of islands and bays rather than running as one open stretch, so route-finding here means checking the map at every point and channel. It drops to 168 feet in its deepest basin, but under a third of the lake is shallow enough to fish from the surface down, so the bottom falls away fast once you're off the shallower bays.

Motors are allowed with no horsepower limit on the U.S. side south of Snow Bay and east of Wilkins Bay, so that stretch sees outboard traffic mixed in with canoes. North and west of that line, no motors are permitted at all. Either way, the crossings run long enough that wind is the main planning concern: a west or north blow can build real chop across the bigger bays.

Lac La Croix carries a genuine multi-species fishery. Lake trout hold in the cold water over the deepest basins, while walleye, smallmouth bass, and sauger work the rock structure and shallower bays closer to shore. Whitefish and cisco fill the water in between, and northern pike turn up almost anywhere there's cover.

75 campsites line the U.S. shoreline, spread out enough across the bays and islands that finding an open one rarely means backtracking far.

On the east shore near Coleman Island, cliff faces carry Ojibwe pictographs of moose, animal tracks, and human figures painted centuries ago. Warrior Hill rises just south of them, a steep rock outcrop where, by tradition, young men tested their strength by racing to the top. Some paddlers still leave tobacco at the site out of respect.

Lac La Croix suits paddlers looking for a real shot at lake trout and big, wind-exposed water. Solitude is easier to find the farther you get from Snow Bay, where the motorized traffic thins out and the lake quiets down toward the border.