Ellsworth Rock Gardens — Attraction in Fort Frances

Visiting Ellsworth Rock Garden was a top highlight of our Voyageurs National Park Tour. It’s located on the Kabetogama peninsula however only accessible by boat, since the peninsula is road-less. It’s so unique and no other place like it on earth, so it earned a 5-star rating. A testimony of Mr Ellsworth’s life work was quite awe inspiring and really cool rocks. Plan for a quick 30-minute visit or a leisurely one-hour self-guided tour; you won’t really need more time than an hour unless you want to stay and relax. It’s typically quite tranquil, except perhaps over the lunch hour! This is also the #1 picnic destination on Lake Kabetogama and within the entire Voyageurs National Park, so although there is a nice large dock it gets full at high-noon! My best tip is to go for an early or late lunch, so you won’t be waiting for a slip at the dock around noon. There is a picnic pavilion area and a few open-air picnic tables too. There are only a couple of charcoal grilling areas.

The main feature is strolling among the unique rock sculptures that Mr. Ellsworth spent decades creating with mostly chisel and pully. However, don’t be disappointed if there are not many flowers. The deer love to eat them and the park has limited resources to plant and maintain gardens. The park features several historical photos of the gardens during its peak flowers blooming, while under the care of Mr. Ellsworth.

There are efforts to make the picnic area more accessible, but as of 2018 there are approximately 10 steps from the dock up to the park area. Several of the trails wind up a steep hill too. A person with limited mobility can enjoy viewing many sculptures, if they are able to walk up a few steps and across a flat grassy lawn.

Getting there- only by boat! It’s a rigorous paddle by canoe or kayak and you would want to launch from Woodenfrog public boat access. Woodenfrog is much closer than the Kabetogama Visitor Center. If don’t own a motorized boat, consider renting one from a local outfitter and also head up to Kettle Falls. We've used several of Northern Lights Resort rentals boats and they offer both pontoon boats for larger groups and fishing boats all with GPS. They are the closest outfitter, if you want to paddle to Ellsworth Rock Garden. It's often much more affordable to rent a boat for a larger group than go on the National Park Tour. The park tour has very limited days and also fills up in advance. You will likely be able to rent a boat on the same day from a local business.

Tip: Grab a pamphlet for a self-guided tour we enjoy reading about the history while walking through among the rock sculptures and gardens.

Tip: If you go early morning it’s so peaceful and you will have the place...

Ellsworth Rock Gardens is a beautiful place and was a destination on one of the scheduled boat trips run by the National Park. It is a very unique place! Lots of hard work went into this garden and it is very impressive. The grass is green and there is a nice view of the water. There are bathrooms available. While not a reflection of the place, it was very buggy with mosquitos swarming and the field was flooding due to rain. This isn't something that could be fixed in a reasonable way by the park, so just know that the place is affected by the current season for...

These fun and quirky rock gardens are definitely worth the trip! Note that they seem to be accessible by boat only, they have a large public dock on Kabetogema.

Built by some fellow named Ellsworth who was really into rocks and art, the gardens took numerous years to build and feature an interesting array of animals and other strange creations made from rocks mortared together. The path through the gardens can be a bit confusing at times, but overall the...