Minnesota's Orr Bog Walk
At Pelican Lake, Orr Visitor Center & Bog Offers Scenic Nature Trail
Located just off Highway 53 behind the Orr Visitor Center in northern Minnesota, the Orr Bog Walk is an other-worldly ½-mile loop through along a floating, wooden boardwalk. Intrepid bog walkers will pass through an ancient ash swamp, a cattail marsh overlooking Pelican Lake, and a spruce bog ridden with ten-foot tall beaver dams. Informational signposts are dotted along the boardwalk, with helpful illustrations identifying the bog’s one-of-a-kind flora and fauna: the carnivorous pitcher plant, the purple-fringed orchid, fresh-water otters, muskrats, osprey, and eagles. While the 1/2 mile loop takes just ten to twenty minutes to complete, adventurous bog walkers can easily fill an entire afternoon taking in the bog's numerous natural wonders. And with its flat, clearly-marked trails, the Orr Bog Walk is perfect for amateur hikers and families with small children.
What is a Bog?
Nature lovers (and science buffs) will delight in the Orr Bog's unique aquatic landscape. The peat bog’s unusually acidic water acts as a natural preservative -- it literally “pickles” anything that falls into it. In fact, archaeologists can determine an incredible amount of information about past cultures by studying rare corpses -- known as “bog bodies” -- dredged up from the bottom of bogs like the one in Orr, Minnesota. The oldest bog body ever found –- the Koelbjerg Woman of Denmark –- was over 5,500 years old and in near-perfect condition at the time of discovery, according to the Archaeological Institute of America's online feature, "Bodies of the Bogs." How do corpses found in peat bogs remain intact for hundreds, or even thousands of years? As the Twin Groves Virtual Wetlands Team's website reports, bog water is extremely acidic and low in oxygen -- as a result, it eats away at skeletal tissue while leaving key identifying marks (like tattoos and even fingerprints) perfectly preserved. Bog bodies, like Denmark's Koelbjerg Woman, are truly -- as archaeologist Steven Hubble puts it -- “fossils in the fuel.”
The notion that ancient corpses may lurk beneath the mossy surface of the bog is just one reason why most Minnesotans stay as far away from the Orr Bog Walk as possible -- except on Halloween, when locals decorate the trail with glowing jack-o-lanterns to commemorate the spookiest night of the year. But the rest of the time, the bog walk is noticeably devoid of visitors – which is a shame, as it's one of North America's most unusual and fascinating interpretive nature trails. Then again, considering the delicacy of its pristine natural environment, less foot traffic may be a good thing after all.
When to visit the Orr Bog
A tip for savvy travelers: the Orr Bog Walk is at its most beautiful during the autumn months, when northern Minnesota's indigenous foliage bursts with blazing color. Avoid the swampy destination in high summer, when the combination of intense heat and stagnant water yields a frenzy of insects. Nothing ruins a nature walk faster than a barrage of mosquitoes!
For more information, how to get there and more, visit the Orr, Minnesota website.
