Points North Services News Today

This ice road in Minnesota is open to ice fishers, but travelers will need to contribute money toward expensive maintenance costs.

Last year, an icy highway was plowed across Lake of the Woods connecting visitors to resorts cut off by Canada's border closings.

Starting in September 2020, each month through July 2021 was the driest on record for the northern Red River Valley, and for much of North Dakota and northern central Minnesota, according to records going back to 1885.

Life for resort owners and other businesses on Minnesota's Northwest Angle has been especially challenging since March 2020, when the U.S.-Canada border closed to nonessential travel in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation is only marginally better this year.

Northwest Angle Guest Ice Road on Lake of the Woods closes for the season A total of 966 passes were sold to use the road, according to the Facebook post. Partners put in 675 hours of plowing and spent $130,000 in building and maintaining the road, in addition to hundreds of volunteer hours handling other aspects of the project. Written By: Brad Dokken | × A pickup towing a snowmobile on a single-place trailer crosses the bridge over a pressure ridge Friday, Jan. 2...

Northwest Angle Guest Ice Road offers new gateway to winter adventure With the U.S.-Canada border closed to tourism and other nonessential travel since March, reaching the Northwest Angle by driving through Manitoba isnt an option and won’t be until the border reopens, whenever that might be. That’s where the Northwest Angle Guest Ice Road comes into play. Written By: Brad Dokken | × Signs greet visitors to the Northwest Angle on Lake of the Woods County Road 4...

With the U.S.-Canada border closed to tourism and other nonessential travel since March, reaching the Northwest Angle by driving through Manitoba isn't an option and won’t be until the border reopens, whenever that might be. That’s where the Northwest Angle Guest Ice Road comes into play.

Opening of Northwest Angle Ice Road again on hold, organizer says Organizers had hoped the road would open Thursday afternoon, Jan. 14, but that is no longer a possibility. Written By: Brad Dokken | × Plow trucks work on the Northwest Angle Guest Ice Road last week on Lake of the Woods. (Photo courtesy of Teri Alsleben, Points North Services) A turn for the worse in ice conditions has delayed the opening of a winter road from the south end of Lake of the Woods to th...

The road begins at Springsteel Resort north of Warroad and follows frozen Lake of the Woods some 22 miles northeast and north to the “Border Cut Trail,” a cut in the trees along the Minnesota-Manitoba border. The 8-mile land trail connects with county roads that take visitors either to Angle Inlet or Youngs Bay, where the ice road to Oak and Flag islands begins. This satellite imagery shows the approximate route the Northwest Angle Guest Ice Road follows from Springsteel Resort north of War...

Organizers have said they want a consistent 15 inches of ice at minimum before opening the road to the public. While the thickness minimum is close, a warm snap early this week caused the ice to shift in some areas, which happens with drastic temperature swings. That, in turn, can create cracks, which need time to heal.