After the great experience I had at the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, I just had to see the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. After a two and half hour drive through the drizzle, slapping flies all the way, I arrived in Bayfield, Wisconsin.
I found their hospitable little lakeside city park, Dalrymple City Campground, and got set up. It was a bit of a challenge to get Flo backed into a site. I imagine that this campground was laid out back when tents and pop-ups were the norm. Payment was by envelope and the fee was $20 per night, electricity included.
Another neat perk was included, too – firewood! The public works department dumped off wood they cut up from trees that they had to take down and from storm damage. I thought that was mighty nice, although I didn’t take advantage of their generosity.
I had a seat on the sunset cruise for the day I arrived, but with the weather – gloomy, at best – I went to the cruise office and got my ticket changed for the next day.
Settled in and ticket changed, I went about restocking the larder. I headed toward the local IGA, but I couldn’t find a place to park. with all the tourists milling about, I was worried that I might run into one. The weather might be bad for cruises, but it is good for the local shops.
I remembered that I had seen another IGA the town just before Bayfield, so I headed back there. When I pulled into town, I noticed the name of the town – Washburn. I started thinking, “Didn’t Paul come from Washburn?” Paul was a guy I taught with at the American School of Guatemala back in the ’80’s. So, I sent of a text to a mutual friend that I had just visited a few months ago. By the time I had my shopping done, I had his phone number. I went back to the trailer, dropped my groceries and gave him a call.
He had moved to a town just a few miles away, and I zipped right over. We spent a couple hours catching up. He treated me to a beer and Extreme Peanut Butter Cookies.
The next day dawned bright, clear and beautiful. First off, I decided to check out the campground I was in. Some of the sites had million dollar views!
I stopped by the National Park Service office for the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. I was impressed by the drinking fountain that encouraged people to refill their own water bottles rather than buy water in disposable plastic bottles.
I stamped my National Park Passport and looked at the interesting merchandise. Given the talk I have been hearing on the radio about selling off national forests and privatizing parks, this seems a little chilling.
I had a burger at Maggie’s and enjoyed the flamingo decor.
And then strolled around a bit.
There were lots a stores selling art, clothing and souvenirs. But, since I didn’t need anything more in my Airstream, I didn’t look.
I did find an amazing playground, however. In addition to interesting structures for climbing and swinging, they had a musical fish!
It must have been fantastic in its prime. Now it is only partially functional as some of the hammers have broken. To play it, you pull back the hammer and drop it on the tube. It really sounded lovely.
The three and a half hour cruise was set to begin at 5:30, and the woman who sold me the ticket told me to be there at 5:00.
This is the boat, the Superior Princess. (I took the shot after the cruise.) I wouldn’t want to a take a trip on and Inferior Princess.
Now comes the tricky part about describing the trip. The high point is definitely Devil’s Island.
The island is riddled with caves. Some of them go as far as sixty feet under the island. The ship’s captain said that people in kayaks enjoy paddling into the caves. That sounds like fun!
The name “Devil’s Island” comes from the wild sounds that the wind and surf makes when it passes through the caves. Thankfully, the day was calm, so we didn’t get to hear the noise.
Ah, but here is one problem:
Unless you managed to sang a prime seat, every time you wanted to look at something, you were looking through a sea of heads.
And another problem with the tour is that it was three and a half hours long. Do you remember the Vaughn Meader’s First Family album that came out in 1963? Oh? You’re not older than dirt? Well, you might want to give a listen to the bit that had Jackie Kennedy giving a tour of the White House.
I almost got the giggles when I thought of Jackie pointing out the paintings.
Well, there’s this one
And that one
And that great big one over there
And that little tiny one behind the other one.
The captain told us things like “That one’s called Basswood Island because there were a lot of bass trees growing there.” A little later, “That one’s called Ironwood Island. They cut down Ironwood trees. They used them to make special furniture.” But he didn’t tell use what sort of special furniture it was.
And then he kept pointing out things that weren’t there. “There used to be three fishing camps on that island.” There used to be a quarry on this island.” “There used to be logging camps on that island.” A little knowledge is good, but there wasn’t enough context to fill the time.
He did have his little jokes, though. At this light, he said that the dark birds were cormorants. The seagull was on top because it was his job to turn on the light.
And then he promised to show us the driftwood factories.
As cliffs erode away, the trees fall in and become driftwood.
The point of going on the tour at 5:30 was to see the sunset. The sunset was lovely!
It wasn’t a bad tour, it was just long. Another possibility might be to find someone to just take you to the interesting parts. I saw this sign by a boat at the dock.
It might be worth looking into, if you want to see the Apostle Islands and not a lot of heads.
