Have you ever wondered what the Superior National Forest look like from the eye of an Eagle? You can experience that sight when you fly with “Van Air” right from the docks of Garden Lake Resort. Your flight will encompass spectacular views and the true beauty that the North Country is renowned for. Your flight will be in a floatplane over many of the area lakes. All aircraft are outfitted with an intercom, headsets, and life jackets to add to the enjoyment and safety of your voyage! Imagine a sunset moose tour or a dinner flight with a view. You can take a short 20 minute flight or an hour flight following the route of the early fur trading Voyageurs. See the untouched wilderness and take in the true meaning of “10,000 Lakes”. During this flight it is not uncommon to see moose, bear, deer, and wolves. Looking for a little romance or celebrating a anniversary or birthday? Fly with VanAir for your dinner date to area restaurants on the water. A popular flight is toNelson’s Restaurant, a fine establishment on Crane Lake, at the U.S./Canadian border. Where ever you fly you will always be amazed as you view it with new eyes, as though you are on Eagle’s Wings!      vanair@rangenet.com  Tower, Mn.

Birds are everywhere in the Ely area and Superior National Forest depending on the season and the habitat. Approximately 155 species of birds breed in the forest.

These include about 100 small and inconspicuous song birds that are often hidden by thick foliage. Their presence is more easily noted soon after dawn during the early summer when they are the most active and in full song. Warblers and vireos comprise about half of the songbirds nesting in the national forest. They spend a remarkably short time on their northern breeding grounds, 3 months at the most, and actually nesting takes about 6 weeks – long enough to produce one brood of young. Upon first arrival in late May, the birds rapidly set up territories. Singing male activity is most conspicuous from June 1 to July 4. Most young are fledged by mid-July and the woods then are very quiet in contrast to the territorial songs heard only a few weeks before. Wandering flocks of post-breeding birds, usually family groups of warblers or chickadees, are encountered beginning in mid-July. Migration really gets underway by late July or early August after the birds have molted.

Tourism in Minnesota is a major industry and creates countless jobs and large revenues for the state. Is it no wonder why the Lodging & Camping facilities, especially seasonal, like to see our public schools letting out early for spring and then start after Labor Day each year. When the state and schools cooperate in doing this, it generates huge additional revenues for both. It also allows students who need to work in the tourism industry, access to jobs that start in early spring and go into the fall. This benefits operators and their employees with work flow issues and gives extra income to their employees! Recently, it has been a disappointment that the State of Minnesota could not come up with a budget for 2011 and have had to shut down all state related business and jobs. The effect is widespread and also has hit tourism hard in camping and state parks revenues. This loss cannot be made up for prime time summer camping. Hopefully, the legislators will soon work out a compromised budget to get the state and tourism rolling again. We need good laws and state supported tourism efforts to keep the industry healthy! Let’s all do our part to support a healthy economy for 2011.

Garden Lake Resort offers high tech options that most travellers expect and need when on their vacation!

Even though you are in a remote location in the heart of the Superior National Forest, you are still able to have FREE high speed Internet access at each cabin and on the properties decks and grounds. Garden Lake Resort has invested in its service to our customers so that they may stay connected with family, friends, and work. Many guests have found they need to be able to work for periods of time during their stay, connecting with employees at their business or work place. With high speed DSL Internet, it is easy to connect with the wireless WI-Fi on your lap top, phone ,or any device needing Internet connection. Downloads and uploads are fast and help to send those pictures of your vacation experience or a picture of the days catch!

When visiting Ely and Garden Lake Resort, you have endless lakes to fish! The Kawishiwi River Lake Chain of Garden Lake, Farm Lake, White Iron Lake, and South Farm Lake offer some of the area’s best fishing. Walleyes, Northern Pike, Smallmouth Bass, Largemouth Bass, Black Crappies, and Bluegills are all caught on this lake chain.

Trophy fish are not uncommon and great to brag or lie about! For many years the Minnesota DNR fisheries has had an aggressive stocking program for Walleyes and slot limits for Walleyes and Northern Pike. Slot limits were set in place years ago which are now showing a difference in size and numbers of fish caught.

Mark & Dianna are excited to announce that 2011 is the 35th year that they have been operating Garden Lake Resort. Much has change in those 35 years, but much has remained the same. We remain small with exceptional cabins, facilities, and all the amenities that make your stay with us comfortable. We offer our guests a unique 4 season vacation experience!

Resorting in Minnesota has gone from 2,200 Resorts in 1975 to around 850 in 2011. We are one of a small group of Mom & Pop resorts left and continue to operate as such. We are able to continue the tradition of personal hospitality which has been lost in much larger Resort/Motel settings. Customer service is very important to us and making your stay at Garden Lake memorable and lasting is important to us. Families and friends come here to enjoy peace and quiet and recreate in an incredibly special environment. Ely hosts a pristine and naturally beautiful experience that is hard to find anywhere else. When visiting Ely and Garden Lake Resort, you will experience a simpler time when families enjoyed walks, hikes, campfires and fishing together, remembering the past, and discovering new things together. Many of you have become regular guests at Garden Lake Resort and even more special to us have become good friends who we are always glad to see!

Because Garden Lake Resort is a small resort of four cabins, it's not uncommon for families to book all four of our Ely Minnesota cabins for their family and extended family for a week.  

Grandma and grandpa, mom, dad, brothers,sisters, nieces, nephews, aunts, and uncles share time together in ways that they may not have the opportunity to do in everyday life, especially if they live far apart.

E.B. White wrote a number of stories for children and adults, Charlotte's Web being perhaps his most well known.  He also wrote an essay, "Once More to the Lake," about taking his pre-adolescent son to a cabin on a lake that he used to go to as a boy with his family. In the essay, White describes seeing the cabin for the first time in years and the joy he felt discovering the lake "right there, right where I left it."

It sounds funny at first. Of course the lake is right there, where it was when he last left it. But for anyone who has ever enjoyed good memories in a cabin on a lake--and returned--White's words make perfect sense.

It's blueberry time in Ely! 

One sure sign is seeing cars parked along the road in the Ely area where there is seemingly little else around. Today, there were two parked cars at different places along the Kawishiwi Trail, just before the turn down Garden Lake Road to our Ely MN resort.  Sure enough, about 100 yards from one of the vehicles, someone with a bucket was crouched down in the brush, picking wild blueberries. 

The berries are here--ripe and ready and just in time for Ely's biggest event of the year, The Blueberry Arts Festival.

We had a stretch of beautiful weather up at our Ely Minnesota resort for a few weeks. Warm days in the mid 70s, cool nights in the mid 50s.  Some days have been clear with a sky strikingly blue. Other days the sky has been dappled with white cotton clouds that are as animated and entertaining as a two-year-old child. Perfect weather, really. 

The days are long now, and the great weather makes you want to start early and end late and soak up as much of the day as you can.  We have over fifteen hours of daylight to fish, swim, hike, bike, picnic, paddle, golf, and camp until--whew!--finally a rainy day.

Thank goodness!

Today we got our rainy day.