DESCRIPTION A 10 minute hike on a well-maintained trail puts the visitor at Vermilion Falls, a cascading torrent of water forced through a 10-foot wide opening in the granite. KEEP SMALL CHILDREN IN HAND! Smallmouth bass fishing below the falls can be excellent. Fishing from shore will produce many snags in this shallow, rocky water. Another option is to launch a canoe or small car-top boat by the parking area and paddle up river. WARNING: THE CURRENT BELOW THE FALLS IS SWIFT AND STRONG IN HIGH WATER AND CAN CAPSIZE A BOAT. BE CAREFUL NOT TO APPROACH TOO CLOSELY. Cast into and around the current with lead head jigs tipped with worms, leeches, or minnows. Crappies, walleyes, and northern pike can also be caught here. A trail directly across the road from the parking lot leads the visitor to "The Chute," a constriction in the river that produced a Class II or III rapids. It's a pleasant 5-minute walk and worth the effort. Part of the trail also serves as the portage around the rapids. If you have a canoe, you could portage to the base of the rapids, put in, and then cross the river to a point of land on the far side. There you can see one of the 9 maintainded campsites on the river. A final point of interest is a small wild rice bed. Standing on the bridge looking up river, the wild rice grows in the small bay to your left. It will be mid-July before the shoots begin to emerge from the water, and seed heads won't begin to develop until the first part of August. Extensive wild rice (it's actually an aquatic grass, not a rice) beds flourish along the Vermilion River and are harvested by humans and wildlife alike from late August through October.

LOCATION The Vermilion Gorge trailhead is located in the community of Crane Lake 27 miles northeast of Orr. In Crane Lake, keep left, watch for the Voyageurs National Park office. Trail parking is .1 mile past the Park Service office on the left.