Midwest Adventures: Enjoy Lipizzans In Lake County
'Royale' Treatment
The Isle Royale Queen IV is tied up at the dock in Rock Harbor Marina on Isle Royale as two canoeists paddle across its bow.
Isle Royale Nat'l Park Great For Fishing, Boating, Getting Away
Story and photos
By SUSAN BAYER WARD Special to the Journal & Topics Newspapers
"If you're wearing polarized sun glasses, today will be a gift from the gods."
Captain Ron knew whereof he spoke.
Towering firs, poplars and aspens crowded the Lake Superior shoreline as we chugged along in the MV Sandy; a pair of nesting bald eagles swung at ease atop a sun-splashed pine; and a loon---popping up in our wake---issued a primeval crescendoed trill which boomeranged round the massive landscape artfully topped by a crisp electric blue sky.
Isle Royale National Park---I'd heard the evocative name carelessly dropped into conversations for years. But where it was, or exactly what it entailed, I was never sure--until now.
Now I know it's an isolated island-sited American national park located in the northwest corner of the largest, coldest and deepest of the Great Lakes yet a mere 15 miles from the Canadian shore.
Small as national parks go---849 square miles--Isle Royale attracts some 20,000 visitors a year, the same number that tour Yellowstone in a day. Visitation is comparatively slight because the park is hard to reach (it's also the only national park that closes for the winter), but this very circumstance is also the wilderness archipelago's saving grace.
Isle Royale and its over 200 ancillary islands are sometimes shrouded in fog, especially in the spring, but when you breach the mists---via ferryboat or seaplane---a pristine north-woods paradise is revealed.
This may be the least visited national park in terms of numbers, but it boasts the most repeat visitors, so says Phyllis Green, Superintendent of Isle Royale.
Green further points out that the park, open April 16 through October 31, has a long stay factor; folks don't just drive in for the day and leave.
Actually, they can't. It's a three- or five-hour ferry ride from the Keweenaw Peninsula, a finger of land jutting northeast out of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, or a three-hour cruise on ferries that operate out of Grand Portage, MN--just to reach Isle Royale. (You can also charter a seaplane in Houghton, MI; it's a 30-minute flight.) But once on Isle Royale, you find there are no cars (heck, no roads to accommodate them), no TV's, no phones---just rugged scenery aplenty.
Some 165 miles of foot trails meander through the 45-mile-long by 9-mile-wide (at its widest point) island and across a few smaller islands in the archipelago.
You're wise to bring stout hiking boots to wander these trails as they're lined with scrub vegetation and embedded with "rocks and roots" Green adds with a laugh.
"We try and do as little development as possible in the park." (In fact, they can't manipulate the landscape much as 99 percent of Isle Royale has been officially designated a wilderness area.)
No ambient light minimizes the splendor of legendary sunsets, the eye-popping rising of the moon or gaudy northern lights displays.
Accommodations can be found in the sole park hostelry, Rock Harbor Lodge, where 60 motel-style rooms offer private baths and wonderful Lake Superior views, and the Lodge Dining Room serves up some excellent fare. There are also 20 Housekeeping Cottages nearby that are more self-sufficient, and 36 campgrounds scattered throughout the islands.
Some 20 inland lakes---great for fishing and boating--are home to otters and beavers who gambol in the sparkling clear waters, while red foxes, weasels and snowshoe hares pick their silent way through the fragrant green-black forest foliage.
Then there are the wolves and moose---iconic members of the Isle Royale family of animals.
Research has shown that moose---excellent swimmers---arrived from the Canadian mainland in the early 1900s. The bitter winter of 1948-49 formed an ice bridge over Lake Superior, which allowed the Eastern timber wolf to cross to the island.
This unique predator-prey duo has fascinated scientists for 50 years and engendered a long-term study of this unusual paring of large mammals in such a confined space.
Wildlife ecologist Dr. Rolf Peterson has spearheaded the wolf-moose study for 38 of those years, and, happily for visitors, can be found at the end of a thimbleberry-cluttered forest trail living in a quaint old cabin at the western end of Rock Harbor.
If you join the MV Sandy tour, which takes visitors to explore the shoreside Edisen Fishery, with an inland hike to the handsome Rock Harbor Lighthouse (circa 1855), you will have the added pleasure of visiting Rolf and Candy Peterson for a chat and a visit to their "bone yard."
This is one of a raft of sightseeing cruises the MV Sandy makes to popular island sites where the boat waits at a dock while you hike to two of four area lighthouses, look for wildlife along wildflower-strewn trails, enjoy fabled vistas and revel in the history and lore of Isle Royale dispensed by Captain Ron as he operates his boat along island waterways.
The Edisen Fishery trip, for instance, allows visitors a chance to wander through a restored commercial fishery, once the mainstay of early Isle Royale settlers who also mined for copper and logged these woods---difficult enterprises so far from the mainland. Archaeologists have even uncovered evidence that American Indians were mining copper here 4,500 years ago. So human habitation goes back a bit.
Not so wolves and moose that are rank newcomers to Isle Royale as Dr. Peterson well knows.
Lanky and lean, with a crop of red hair and a full beard, Rolf Peterson stands before the 80-year-old cabin, which has been a summer base of operations for the wolf-moose study since 1960.
Visitors are welcomed inside by his wife, Candy, who explains that the picturesque home is kept much as it was when it housed the family that ran the Bangsund Fishery starting in the late 1920s.
Carefully annotated grid maps clutter the kitchen table and Dr. Peterson shares the fact that aerial surveys, most fruitful in winter when vegetation is sparse, reveal the territory of the three island wolf packs---their numbers ranging from 12 to 50 in any given year---as well as the approximately 1,000 moose who presently call Isle Royale home.
The Petersons share an intriguing array of moose and wolf lore before taking you behind the cabin to the "bone yard" where a mass of skulls and bones are on display---the result of painstaking island hikes to locate and collect any dead animals. In this way, scientists have been able to learn--from studying its skeletal remains--an animal's health, age, diet and abnormalities if any. The accumulated data sheds light on this unusual wolf-moose dynamic and how it affects the ecology of Isle Royale.
You may well encounter a moose during your rambles round Isle Royale, but don't count on seeing a wolf. Though the number of wolves per square mile is among the highest in the world, they move like gray ghosts through the thick foliage and steer clear of humans. Only scat on the trail will alert you to the fact that a wolf has passed by.
My closest wolf encounter came when I and some chums canoed across Tobin Harbor, then hiked up a trail and across the famed Greenstone Ridge to Lookout Louise. This airy perch affords stunning views of densely forested land spits and other islands, which comprise the north shore of Isle Royale, as well as the distant Ontario mainland.
As we gazed our fill, and cameras snapped, the falsetto yips of wolf pups floated across Duncan Bay---their parents probably out hunting and the youngsters too green to keep silent as would their elders. A primordial tingle traveled up my spine and the thought of their nearness etched a special memory into the arresting scene.
The only other island denizen who can illicit such a visceral reaction is the loon whose staccato tremolo bursts excite and delight. And Isle Royale is literally lousy with loons. An astonishing 100 pair nest here each summer, and enthusiastic birders arrive eager to catch sight of their sleek black heads, hear their eerie cries and hopefully clap eyes on a parent cruising along with several downy chicks on its back.
In fact, there is much to like on peaceful, secluded Isle Royale as black-throated green warblers and red-eyed vireos flit by, 36 species of orchids and other wildflowers festoon the woodlands, and great splashes of bright orange lichen decorate the boulders that line the shore. Nary a bear to worry about as well, Superintendent Green points out, saying, "I think this is one of the safest parks."
Yep, all except for that pesky predator, the insect. Bugs abound---mosquitoes, gnats and black flies being the main culprits. You'll be fine if you wear protective clothing, carry bug spray and even don a head net if you don't want to swat the air constantly during a hike over those rocks and roots.
Park rangers, as well as the staff at the lodge, are eager to assist and inform visitors who seek out this island wilderness. Ranger-led hikes and evening lectures give you a leg up on where to go and what you might like to do; canoes, kayaks and motorboats are available for rental in the marina; a water-taxi service ferries campers and hikers to various trailheads around the island; the MV Sandy makes daily excursions to island sights including an evening sunset cruise; and fishing charters are available for those who want to enjoy a tussle with a northern pike, walleye or rare coaster brook trout (the latter catch and release).
But you don't have to be a big-time outdoorsman to enjoy Isle Royale. The peace and sheltered nature of the place are addictive as is the homemade mushroom soup and hot chocolate served in the dining room. And maybe it's best to take Phyllis Green's advice. When the Superintendent was asked to list some of her favorite things to do on Isle Royale she said, "I tell people to find a warm rock on the bay and just sit there and enjoy the beauty."
Many agree.
IF YOU GO
Isle Royale National Park; 906-482-0984; www.nps.gov/isro
Open: April 16 through October 31
Rock Harbor Lodge; summer 906-337-4993; winter 866-644-2003; www.isleroyaleresort.com
Open: May 23 through September 5
How to get there: Four ferries travel to the island from the mainland, two from Michigan and two from Minnesota. There's also a seaplane service.
* Isle Royale Queen IV (out of Copper Harbor, MI); 906-289-4437; www.isleroyale.com
In operation May 15 through September 28
* Ranger III (out of Houghton, MI); 906-482-0984; www.nps.gov/isro
In operation June 2 through September 5
* Voyageur II (out of Grand Portage, MN); 888-746-2305; www.GRAND-ISLE-ROYALE.com
In operation May 8 through October 24
* Wenonah (out of Grand Portage, MN); 888-746-2305; www.GRAND-ISLE-ROYALE.com
In operation June 19 through September 19
* Royale Air Service, Inc. (out of Houghton, MI); 877-359-4753; www.royaleairservice.com
In operation mid May through mid September
Accommodations: Available in motel-style rooms at Rock Harbor Lodge, in their more self-sufficient Housekeeping Cottages, and in 35 campgrounds scattered around the islands. Reservations are essential. Be aware peak season is mid-July to mid-August.
Dining: Rock Harbor Lodge operates on the American Plan. You can also enjoy the adjacent Greenstone Grill with its attached outdoor patio where things are more casual. In fact, casual is the keynote at Isle Royale where guests enjoy three hearty and warming meals a day which can include the lodge's justly famed fresh lake trout, an excellent steak, pasta and chicken dishes and some tasty desserts including Moose Tracks ice cream and local berry cobbler. There's no package liquor available but you can order wine and beer by the glass. Campers and people staying in the Housekeeping Cottages are also welcome in the Lodge Dining Room. Reservations recommended.
Facilities and Amenities: On the dock at Rock Harbor Marina where ferries arrive and depart, you'll find the Rock Harbor Visitor Center which sells a number of park publications and nature books, handles backcountry permits for campers, lists dates and times of upcoming interpretive programs and has rangers on tap to field any and all queries. (A cheeky fox posed outside the center's picture window while I stood in line one evening to purchase a copy of Isle Royale's excellent Trails Illustrated Map.) There's also a Dockside Store, which sells groceries, fishing tackle, outdoor equipment, some clothing, sundries, postcards and the like. Hot showers and laundry facilities are available behind the store, on shore, for campers and any others who wish to use them. Some high-end handcrafted gift items and outdoor clothing are also available at the gift shop adjacent to the Lodge Dining Room.
The marina has a number of canoes, kayaks and motorboats for rent with paddles and life jackets to go with them. There is also dock space and facilities for private boaters who make their own way to Isle Royale.
Wreck Diving: Sport divers have a field day on Isle Royale as there are 10 wrecks within park waters---their colorful histories and tragic ends a testament to the dangerous rocky shoals that surround the islands and the unpredictable and wild nature of Lake Superior. The America, a passenger steamer that sank in 1928, attracts many because though its keel sits 73 feet under water, the bow is only a few yards below the surface.
Customs: If you're a U.S. citizen returning from Canada, or a Canadian visitor, you must clear customs with U.S. Customs and Immigration officers at the ranger stations situated at Rock Harbor or on the western end of the island at Windigo---site of the other park visitor center.
Weather: Weather is a factor here. The lake can kick up a fuss; fogs roll in during the spring; temperatures rarely climb above 80 degrees F at the height of summer; and sudden storms and rain can appear at any moment. Be prepared with a variety of layers that include warm clothes, Windbreakers and rain gear.
Tips and Suggestions: If you're prone to seasickness, cart along your favorite remedy for those ferry rides in case your crossing is less than calm. Bring a camera to record this gorgeous slice of wilderness and binoculars to scout out elusive animals and birdlife. Absolutely no pets are allowed so leave Fluffy at home (they bring diseases that can do irreparable damage to the resident wildlife). Be aware you will be assessed a $4 per day park user fee which can be paid on your ferry or at the visitor center. You might want to request a room on the lower floor in one of the four two-tier buildings that house guestrooms because you get the added plus of a balcony (no balconies on the top floor) on which you can sit of an evening and drink in those spectacular sunsets, moon rises and dazzling northern lights.
Finally:
If you like to camp (the lodge closes September 5 but the park stays open through October as do the campgrounds), fall, as Superintendent Green will agree, is a great time to visit. "Fall is a great time to come because the moose are in rut and they don't pay people any mind." Translated, that means your likelihood of seeing moose are vastly improved. In addition, most insects are gone by September, the air is crisp and the northern lights are going crazy.