The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness reopened select entry points in Cook County for day use on Monday, ending a total closure that began at 12.01 a.m. on 14 July after more than 25 wildfires started in the Superior National Forest from 7 July. Overnight camping remains prohibited through Wednesday 29 July, and all overnight permits through that date were cancelled.
The scale of the interruption is visible in the wilderness’s own booking system. Recreation.gov’s availability data for the Boundary Waters quota permit shows no capacity at all on 16 of the 17 days from 13 to 29 July, with 25 July the lone anomaly at 391 slots. Against the 3,306 slots a day the system was still offering on 12 July, as partial closures took hold, that is roughly 53,000 quota permit slots that never went on sale. In the first week of July the system was offering 6,349 a day.
The reopening is staged. The Forest Service has proposed a second phase from 30 July covering 37 of the wilderness’s 103 quota entry points and about 424,231 acres, or 39% of the area, contingent on there being no significant fire activity over the weekend. Trout Lake is the only entry point proposed for reopening in St. Louis County, for day use by motor. The booking data already reflects the plan: capacity returns on 30 July at 3,306 slots a day, about half the early-July level.
Forest officials framed the sequencing as a balance. “If there is no major wildfire activity this weekend, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness might partially open for overnight camping next week,” district ranger Michelle Stroberg said. “We are trying to balance visitor and firefighter safety with people’s desire to visit the Wilderness.” The wilderness covers about 1,098,000 acres and roughly 1,900 campsites; we reported on 19 July that smoke from the same fires had pushed Minnesota’s air quality to the worst levels on record.