Knutson Dam Access Road

Trail Overview

This trail is a well-maintained and mostly smooth gravel route that runs through the forest, though some corrugated sections are along the way. It leads to a sublime campground located beside a lake and the Mississippi River. The campground includes a small ablution block and a water source, though individual campsites do not have their own water or electricity. Each site is equipped with a bench and a fire ring. There is a small white sand beach suitable for swimming and two boat launch areas, including a free boat cleaning station and a pier beside rapids from which to fish. The setting is calm and scenic, offering a peaceful place to camp.

Photos of Knutson Dam Access Road

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Difficulty

This trail is well-maintained and used regularly by OHV users, so be watchful of other offroaders and adventurers.

History

Covering more than 1.6 million acres of glacial lakes, red-pine uplands, and sphagnum bogs, Minnesota's Chippewa National Forest lets motorists experience the North Woods at an unrushed pace. Paved state highways soon yield to a lattice of numbered forest roads, most of them well-graded gravel that thread between kettle ponds and stands of towering white pine, the tree that helped earn the forest its 1908 designation as one of America's first national forests. The forest harbors one of the highest breeding densities of bald eagles in the continental United States, and patient drivers often glimpse loons, black bears, and white-tailed deer as they move from shoreline to clear-cut regrowth and back again.

Technical Rating

Knutson Dam Access Road can be accessed by the following ride types:

• High-Clearance 4x4