Two Island Lake

Two Island Lake covers about 754 acres in Cook County, roughly 15 miles north of Grand Marais along the Gunflint Trail corridor. It falls within the Gunflint ranger district, but the lake itself sits outside the wilderness boundary: the nearest BWCA entry points are five miles off or farther, none of them connected to it by portage, so this is a lake reached by road rather than paddled in from the interior.

Rock does most of the work shaping this lake, forming a scatter of underwater points and islands rather than one open basin. It drops to only 27 feet at its deepest, and with over 700 of its roughly 750 acres shallow enough to hold weeds and structure, there's almost no true deep water here. The water itself runs soft and tannin-stained, darker than a clear lake but not heavily bog stained.

Smallmouth bass are what this lake is known for. Catch rates and average size run well above what a typical lake this size produces, and a protective slot keeps that fishery intact: any bass between 14 and 20 inches has to go back, with only one over 20 inches allowed in the boat. Walleye have reproduced naturally here since the mid 1990s without any need for restocking, northern pike grow well on the lake's forage base, and bluegill turn up in numbers unusual for this part of the state, alongside yellow perch that mostly serve as forage.

A U.S. Forest Service campground sits on the lake's east end, with a concrete boat ramp and parking for about 15 vehicles. There's no wilderness permit or quota system to arrange here, just a place to launch and camp.

Two Island Lake suits a smallmouth bass trip or a family camping stop along the Gunflint Trail more than a wilderness stay. It sits close enough to several BWCA entry points to work as a staging point before a trip, but the campground and boat ramp keep it in a different category from the portage-only lakes just a few miles in.