Cook County

103 acres

Map with GPS coordinates

Grand Portage State Forest Map

N48 2.188, W90 0.710

The Border Route Trail passes through this preserve.

Contact NE MN Program Office (218) 727-6119 for more information.

Province

Laurentian Mixed Forest

Section

Northern Superior Uplands

Subsection(s)

Border Lakes

Land Type Association(s)

The Nature Conservancy

Getting There
Park at the end of South Fowl Road. Follow the narrow, unimproved road north 0.3 miles (540 yards) to the Border Route Trail. The road continues north to South Fowl Lake and is heavily used by OHVs. The trail crossing is easy to miss. It is unmarked and, depending on the time of year, overgrown. Look for a blaze in the form of two pieces of surveyor’s tape, one blue and one pink, hanging from a branch of a quaking aspen sapling on the east side of the road. See the map for the GPS coordinates of this trail crossing.

Border Route Trail
The Border Route Trail is flagged with blue, sometimes pink, surveyor’s tape. In a few places there is a pile of stones (cairn) marking the trail. Visitors are asked to stay on the trail to avoid trampling endangered plant species.

State Forest
This site lies within the Grand Portage State Forest.

Click on a visitor name below (if any) to view that visitor’s observations.

Click on the button to share your own observations.

One bird species with protected status in Minnesota has been seen here:

Special concern – Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

Other birds seen on this site, along with those listed below, include Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), Common Raven (Corvus corax), Spruce Grouse (Falcipennis canadensis), Red Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra), White-winged Crossbill (Loxia leucoptera), Gray Jay (Perisoreus canadensis), and Boreal Chickadee (Poecile hudsonicus).

One mammal species with protected status in Minnesota is found here:

Special concern – gray wolf (Canis lupus)

Other mammals seen on this site, along with those listed below, include moose (Alces alces), Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis), bobcat (Lynx rufus), American marten (Martes americana), fisher (Martes pennanti), and American black bear (Ursus americanus americanus).

Two plant species with protected status in Minnesota are found here:

Endangered – alpine milkvetch (Astragalus alpinus var. alpinus), sticky locoweed (Oxytropis borealis var. viscida)

University of Minnesota Herbarium Plant List