Life update: I got married! This is my first blog post as a married lady, and I will write about our honeymoon destination: Bayfield and the Apostle Islands.
Side story: No, this was not the original plan for our honeymoon. About a year ago, I received the best email of my life - I had won the lottery to stay overnight at Phantom Ranch, the historic lodging located at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I had been trying to win these reservations for years, and it finally happened. And when I got engaged a month later, we thought that this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stay at Phantom Ranch and complete a rim-to-rim hike of the Grand Canyon would make for a pretty epic honeymoon. Unfortunately, COVID-19 had other plans, and my October 2020 reservations were eventually cancelled by the concessionaire. So we needed a new plan. We did not want to fly anywhere or go anywhere that would likely be very crowded, so something off the beaten path. Our answer was Apostle Islands National Lakeshore ("A.I.N.L.").
First of all, some definitions: The "Apostle Islands," nicknamed the Jewels of Lake Superior, are an archipelago of 22 islands located in the southwestern corner of Lake Superior (the largest, the deepest, and the coldest of the Great Lakes). The largest of these islands, Madeline Island, is not part of the National Lakeshore but is home to the community of La Pointe (pop. 300) as well as Big Bay State Park. The remaining 21 islands, as well as about a dozen miles of coastline around the Bayfield County peninsula, make up A.I.N.L.
A.I.N.L. remained a relatively hidden gem until 2014, when a winter photo of its sea caves, which had frozen over with ice waterfalls, went viral. For the first time, hundreds of thousands of people visited the islands to walk over the frozen lake to access these ice caves.
This post will describe my exploration of Madeline Island and the mainland portion of A.I.N.L. (and surrounding communities). As many of the boat shuttles that would typically provide transportation to the other islands of A.I.N.L. were cancelled for the 2020 season (and also because we are not experience sea-kayakers), we opted not to visit any of the other islands.
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| Map from Encyclopedia of Wisconsin Environmental History |
Getting There
A.I.N.L is located off the coast of Bayfield County in northern Wisconsin, about eight hours northwest of Chicago (the nearest major metropolitan area, Duluth, Minnesota, is 90 minutes away). The city of Bayfield, Wisconsin (population 500) is the gateway to the Apostle Islands, and it offers that small, coastal, tourist town feel, with plenty of seaside motels, B&Bs, craft shops, and eateries. In order to minimize contact/exposure to others, we opted to stay at a B&B with only four rooms and private entrances from the outdoors for every room. We had breakfast delivered to our door each morning, and we never had to go through any common areas.
Getting Around
As with any island-based destination, getting around A.I.N.L requires some sort of watercraft. And in order to get around to multiple islands, your options are to 1) be an experienced sea-kayaker, 2) have your own boat, or 3) pay a lot of money.
For experienced sea-kayakers, A.I.N.L. is the ultimate playground. Sand Island, one of the inner islands with the best sea caves, is just over a three-mile paddle from the nearest mainland jump-off point, Little Sand Bay, and could be visited as a day trip. Kayakers could also paddle to any of the outer islands and spent the night at one of the campgrounds (every island has one), but all overnight camping was closed due to COVID. Lake Superior is notorious for having unpredictable conditions, which is why guided kayak tours are strongly recommended for inexperienced sea kayakers.
If you have your own boat, like a power boat or a sailboat, you could take advantage of the free docks that are located on most of the outer islands and go island hopping. Most of the islands have at least one hiking trail and other points of interest (lighthouses and/or historic homes). But be prepared for bears - some of these islands have the highest black bear density in the country!
If neither of the previous two options work for you, but you still want to visit some of the A.I.N.L. islands, you will have to pay a lot for transportation costs. For example, a water taxi to one of the closest islands to the mainland, Basswood Island, will cost $80 (one way). Fares to one of the outer-most islands, like Outer Island, is $300 (one way). The cheapest island to get to is Madeline Island, which is not part of A.I.N.L. The Madeline Island Ferry makes multiple trips a day (except during winter), and if you don't take a car, then you could go there and back for $16 (round trip).
On the mainland, a car is the best way to get around the Bayfield County peninsula, where you might want to visit Meyers Beach, the starting point of the A.I.N.L Lakeshore Trail, or go down to Washburn (population 2000), another quaint coastal town with its own historic charm and cultural attractions.
Cruising the Apostle Islands
On the first day of our trip, we took a tour cruise to get a comprehensive introduction to the islands. Apostle Islands Cruises offers a three-hour Grand Tour (May-October), a narrated 55-mile scenic tour with no stops. This was one of the sight-seeing options that we were most nervous about, since the words "social-distancing" and "cruise ship" haven't gone well together this year. But Apostle Islands Cruises reduced their tours to 50% of capacity and required all passengers and staff to wear masks while on board. We also sat on the top level of the boat, in the open air, for the entire cruise (it was windy). The cruise was a great way to learn about the history of the islands and their significance. The captain also had some interesting stories about some of the people who used to live on the islands. We saw some great sea cave formations throughout the cruise, and we also saw lots of eagles.
Kayaking
Due to dangerous wind conditions, we were unable to do the sea kayaking tour that we had planned on. Instead, we went kayaking on our own in Chequamegon Bay, an inlet of Lake Superior. However, sea-kayaking is one of the most popular activities in A.I.N.L., and the most popular area for sea-kayaking is Meyers Beach. This area has some of the most impressive sea caves and is also the easiest sea caves to access for beginner tourists, as they are on the mainland portion of the park. This is where we would have gone on our tour had it not been cancelled. But there are several other areas with sea caves to kayak.
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| Map from wanderlustphotosblog.com |
Madeline Island
Madeline Island is the largest of the Apostle Islands, and even though it is not part of the National Lakeshore, it is home to a beautiful state park and town park. So early one morning, we took the 20-minute ferry right from Bayfield to La Pointe, and we spent a day on "island time."
Big Bay Town Park and Big Bay State Park are connected by a hiking trail. We opted to park at Big Bay Town Park (suggested donation is $2 per person) instead of parking at the state park (requires a park pass). But pretty soon after we started hiking, we entered the state park, and we spent most of our time hiking those trails. The Boardwalk Trail featured a mile-long boardwalk as well as interpretive signs. And the Bay View Trail followed along the water and gave access to some fun rock formations that you could walk out to and get great views of the coastline.
After a long hike, we went back into town to get lunch. I think Grampa Tony's was the only restaurant that was open that day. And then we went to Tom's Burned Down Cafe for a drink.
We brought our car over for the day, but had we left it on the mainland, our options would have been to rent bikes or mopeds on the island. The rental stand (the only one) was about a two-block walk from the ferry dock.
The Lakeshore Trail
For our long hike of the trip, we did the Lakeshore Trail, which is the only A.I.N.L.-run trail on the mainland of Bayfield County. The out-and-back trail starts at Meyers Beach, which is about a 25-minute drive west of Bayfield, and there is $5 fee to park at Meyers Beach Road for the day. The trail starts out with about .75 miles of boardwalk, which has some stairs but is relatively accessible. And then there is another mile of more rugged trail before the first sea cave overlook. Most people turn around at this overlook, but there are several other impressive rock formations (with names like Crevasse, Garage, and Bowl) within the next mile of trail. Unless you are hiking to the campsite, which is about 5.5 miles from the starting point, I would recommend that you turn around after viewing the Bowl (you will know it when you see it). After that, the trail turns away from the coastline and into the woods, and you don't get any more views after that.
Other Hikes
The Bayfield area offers many hiking areas that are not run by the National Park Service. My favorites were the Houghton Falls Trail (although the falls are seasonal) and the Gil Larsen Trail, both of which were about 3 miles long.
Staying in Bayfield
We opted to stay at a bed & breakfast that was about a 10 minute drive south of the Bayfield downtown area. We were looking for some peace and quiet and also some more distance from the crowds. But we loved where we stayed. It put us closer to Adventure Club Brewing, the northern-most brewery in Wisconsin. And it also put us a bit closer to Washburn, a neighboring town with some solid restaurant options (see Good Thyme for a nice dinner, Cafe Coco for breakfast and lunch, and Dalou's for pizza). A lot of the restaurants in Bayfield were closed due to COVID, so we were glad to have these options.
Next Time
The next time we go to the Apostle Islands, the main thing we would want to do is go sea kayaking, since we didn't get to do that this time. Our B&B hosts said that August is a great time to visit because that's when things are really happening in the area. So maybe we will try August next time. And maybe if more of the water taxis are open for business, we will get to boat out to some of the other islands and do some hiking or kayaking there.
