Lake Superior’s Lost Isle

Getting There
Grand Portage Bay is roughly 300 miles, or a five-hour drive, from the Twin Cities. In addition to the Voyaguer II’s thrice-daily trips around the island, the Voyageur’s sister ship, the Wenonah, makes a daily trip from Grand Portage to Windigo Harbor, weather permitting, and has a three-hour layover if you wish to explore the island without staying overnight. Boats also make the trip from Michigan. The biggest, the Ranger III, crosses from Houghton, another, the Isle Royale Queen IV, leaves from Copper Harbor. Round trips cost from $108 to $124.

What to Do
Activities on the island vary depending on location. The northern end of Isle Royale is dramatically different from the south end. Glacial scouring produced dozens of deep, narrow harbors and most of the park’s 400 tiny islands. The abundance of easily accessible coves, bays, and idyllic campsites is one reason kayakers and canoers generally prefer to work the northern tip of the island.

On the rest of the island, most of the landscape is accessible to day-hikers from Rock Harbor. (Grab a quart of water and some sandwiches from the Rock Harbor marina grill, and you’re good to go.) The Rock Harbor area has a number of trails, and most are well-marked, well-traveled, and easily navigable in good walking shoes.

The classic route is the roughly two-mile jaunt northeast to Scoville Point. You can take the Lake Superior side one way and the inner, Tobin Harbor, side the other way and get an excellent feel for the island in a little over two hours, albeit meeting many more fellow hikers than you’d ever encounter during the nearly fifty-mile run from Rock Harbor to Washington Harbor.

The water taxi service at Rock Harbor takes you five miles or so down the harbor to the Rock Harbor lighthouse and adjacent Edisen Fishery, which doubles as an interpretive center. Both are picturesque and well worth the time, although, at $214 round-trip for two, the taxi is a bit pricey. Canoe rental is $34 a day, a kayak is $50, a small motorboat $72. The National Park Service also offers guided boat and hiking tours for a marginal fee.

Where to Stay
Accommodations for noncampers and nonboaters are spartan at the island’s south end, where small screened huts with bare wood floors and a broom are available on a first-come, first-served basis. These little huts are scattered around the island at various designated campsites. Their only appeal to the camping-averse is the sanctuary they offer from insects, sudden rain, and the prospect of sleeping on hard or wet ground. If you are a backpacker though, the little huts exude an odd homey appeal, their walls and ceilings cluttered with the graffiti-verse of previous occupants and their grounds often patrolled by the “camp fox,” remarkably fearless and handsome creatures that will walk up within six feet of you, sniffing for droppings of your chicken-noodle appetizer.

On the north end, Rock Harbor, where the Voyageur II overnights, is Isle Royale’s only fully developed tourist center, with most of the amenities you expect from a national park— including Rock Harbor Lodge, where you can rent a south-facing room on the rocks ten feet above Lake Superior for $239 a night per couple in peak season (July 15–August 15) and $215 off-peak. Although a better option might be one of the twenty cottages back in the woods that comes complete with kitchenette, electric heat, and a private bath. Rates vary based on occupancy: $209 a night for two, $384 a night for up to six. (Additional charges for children under twelve.)

As for food on the island, it is pretty much standard fare, ranging from pizzas and burgers to fresh lake trout dinners in the more formal dining room. If you are expecting high-end eating, you might be disappointed. But most folks returning to the lodge after a day strolling in the woods and contemplating the natural splendors of life on some tranquil, crystal blue cove will be thoroughly satisfied.