Making the most of winter in northern Minnesota

Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge’s half-day tours range from $125-$150 for kids and $175 for adults.   ( Kelly Smith/Chicago Tribune )

Guides with Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge cross-country ski as they lead visitors across a frozen lake.   ( Kelly Smith/Chicago Tribune )

A Canadian Inuit dog from Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge rests on White Iron Lake in northern Minnesota.   ( Kelly Smith/Chicago Tribune )

A team of dogs pulls a sled into a forest near White Iron Lake in northern Minnesota.   ( Kelly Smith/Chicago Tribune )

Kavita Kumar, left, of Minneapolis and Katie Humphrey of St. Louis Park, Minn., snowshoe across Hegman Lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness near Ely.   ( Kelly Smith/Chicago Tribune )

Prehistoric Native American pictographs on Hegman Lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness can be seen by canoe in the summer or by hiking, skiing or snowshoeing about 2 miles across the frozen lake in the winter.   ( Kelly Smith/Chicago Tribune )

The main street of Ely, Minn., is nearly empty in the winter as business in the tourism town slows down outside peak summer months.   ( Kelly Smith/Chicago Tribune )

More than a century old, Ely Steam Sauna is one of the last public saunas left in Minnesota.   ( Kelly Smith/Chicago Tribune )