Clementson Park is a Lake of the Woods County day-use park on the Rapid River, just west of the Koochiching County line at the hamlet of Clementson and beside the Minnesota Highway 11 bridge. Here the Rapid River tumbles over dark bedrock ledges in a run of whitewater before slipping into the Rainy River — which forms the international border with Ontario — a short way downstream. The county’s Public Works Department maintains the park; picnic tables and fire rings sit in the shade above the water, wooden docks give canoes and small boats access to the calm confluence pool, and a rocky overlook takes in the rapids and the highway bridge. A life-jacket loaner station, an Eagle Scout project stocked by the county, stands at the picnic ground.
The Rapid River runs more than 57 miles from bog headwaters in the Beltrami Island country, draining a 573,060-acre watershed the Minnesota DNR rates the healthiest in the state — nearly three-quarters of it wetland — and a USGS streamgage at the highway crossing has long measured the river here. It’s a fine place to break a drive along Highway 11: stretch your legs, watch the whitewater, and listen to the river on its way to the border. The park is also known as Clementson Wayside Park or the Clementson Rest Area.
