When you stay at Burntside Lodge, you have at your disposal a wide variety of activities. From listening to the common loon on the lake, to hiking in the forest, to paddling the lake in a canoe or kayak, there is little left to be desired on your vacation. You have the leisure to do as much or as little as you wish.

Burntside Lake

Burntside Lodge is nestled among the pines on the edge of Burntside Lake, a deep, spring-fed lake, lying at the threshold of the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area (BWCWA). It is over 12 miles long, with a 10,234 acre surface area and dotted with more that 125 pine-crested islands. The maximum depth is 126 ft. and water clarity averages around 22 ft. making it one of the cleanest and clearest lakes in the area.

The lake is home to a number of game fish including Walleye, Northern Pike, Lake Trout, Small Mouth Bass, and Large Mouth Bass. Burntside is also a great lake for loon watching. A survey by the Minnesota DNR identified Burntside Lake as having the largest population of loons.

The first occupants of Burntside Lake were a succession of native peoples with the Obijway people living on Indian Island as recently as the early-mid 20th century. The name Burntside is a translation of an Obijway word meaning “the lake where the timber has been burned off on one side”.

European visitors to the Burntside area first came in search of furs and lumber. Today, evidence can be found on the lake of the extensive logging operations that began in the late nineteenth century and continued throughout three decades. Remnants of log flumes built along Burntside River can be visited by canoeists on an afternoon paddle.

Today Burntside is valued for it’s unrivaled scenic beauty and serenity.