Qualla: Bear Head Lake State Park

Bear Head Lake State Park: Introduction

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. In September 2010, a park that most Minnesotans had never visited beat Great Smoky Mountains National Park in a nationwide popularity contest. Over 5.7 million votes were cast in the Coca-Cola Company's inaugural "America Is Your Park" poll, and more than 1.6 million of them went to Bear Head Lake State Park -- a 5,540-acre pocket of boreal forest near Ely, Minnesota, that did not even rank among the state's top ten parks for overnight visits. The secret weapon was a webcam. A mother black bear and her cubs had been captured on a popular wildlife stream within the park's territory, and their online fan community mobilized with an enthusiasm that left the Great Smokies half a million votes behind. The park collected $100,000 in prize money and a title -- "America's Favorite Park" -- that it never expected and has never quite lived down.

Image: Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States | CC BY-SA 2.0

Bear Head Lake State Park: Two-Billion-Year-Old Bedrock, Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Lakes

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit McGhiever, CC BY-SA 3.0. Successive ice ages scoured the landscape around Bear Head Lake down to bedrock that is 2,700 million years old. The last glacial period, ending roughly 10,000 years ago, deposited a thin layer of stony till and left behind the Walston and Vermillion moraines -- thick ridges of s...

Image: McGhiever | CC BY-SA 3.0

Bear Head Lake State Park: A Birder's Forest

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. Each forest type within the park attracts its own community of summer birds. In the aspen-birch stands, ovenbirds call from the forest floor while red-eyed vireos sing from the canopy. Veeries offer their spiraling, downward song at dusk. Ruffed grouse drum on fallen logs. Black-...

Image: Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States | CC BY-SA 2.0

Bear Head Lake State Park: Entry-Level Wilderness

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit McGhiever, CC BY-SA 3.0. Bear Head Lake State Park has been described as an "entry-level taste" of the nearby Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and the comparison is apt. The scenery -- dense boreal forest, clear cold lakes, granite shorelines -- is nearly identical. The difference is access. Here y...

Image: McGhiever | CC BY-SA 3.0

Bear Head Lake State Park: Four Seasons on the Trail

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. The park's trail system is modest in mileage but generous in variety. Hiking paths wind through forest and along lakeshores, though much of the park's 5,540 acres remains trailless -- accessible only by water or cross-country travel, which adds to the sense of wildness. When wint...

Image: Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States | CC BY-SA 2.0