The 4,760 km2 (1,180,000-acre) park shares its southern border with Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which is part of the larger Superior National Forest.

Canoeists require permit reservations and in-season may enter the Quetico only via six Ranger Stations, which serve 21 specific entry points.

Limited artifacts have been found in the park from that era and the subsequent Archaic period circa 6000 years ago.

The grievances of the band were not addressed until 1991, when the Minister of Natural Resources, Bud Wildman, made a landmark, formal apology in the legislature for these actions.

He approved one of the band's requests: to allow them to use mechanized boats and canoes on three additional lakes in the park for the purposes of guiding, and to expand use of floatplanes, during an interim period while public review was conducted.

The name may also be a version of the French words quête de la côte, which means "search for the coast".

An exception allows members of the Lac La Croix Guides Association, part of the Lac La Croix First Nation, to operate power boats with engines of no more than 10 horsepower (7.5 kW) on Quetico, Beaverhouse, Wolseley, Tanner, Minn, and McAree lakes.

Containers of fuel, insect repellent, medicines, personal toilet articles, and other items that are not food or beverage are the only cans or bottles that may be brought into Quetico.

"This means that no live or dead organic bait can be used in the park, including but not limited to leeches, worms, and salted minnows.

The park contains numerous "young" lakes (only tens of thousands of years old) that are held by this ancient bedrock.

Due to its proximity to the Laurentian Divide, the park can be considered to be in the headwaters of the Hudson Bay watershed.

These small mammals include, squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, groundhogs, rabbits, minks, gophers, weasels, and porcupines.

While visiting, one may see moose, wolves, coyotes, lynxes, bobcats, cougars, white-tailed deer, foxes, and black bears.

The four most popular fish in Quetico's water are smallmouth bass, northern pike, walleye and lake trout.