Visiting Isle Royale

The Progress of Spring

It's still spring, even in late June, in some areas of Isle Royale. I had a fascinating visit to Edwards Island last week, in which I walked through spring as I moved away from the lakeshore on this small, narrow island up near Blake Point at the farthest northeast reaches of Isle Royale. I walked in from the stone beach I had pulled my boat onto and found that the plants were just coming out, as shown in this first photo, which also shows many spruces blown down by the winter winds, as is so common near the edges of the main island and its outlying islands.

As I moved northeast toward a pretty cove on Edwards, I found the plants higher, though still in a stage that I would call spring-like. This next shot is of the cove, looking northeast toward North Government Island, the next island up the chain that forms Rock Harbor. You see that the vegetation has progressed toward a stage that we could call late spring. The day I was there, you could feel clearly how this works. Near the beach, the cool wind off cold Rock Harbor, water temperature about 40 degrees, was sharply cooler, perhaps 15 to 20 degrees, than the air up amid the spruces.

Big Ships

What a gorgeous morning to make the crossing to Isle Royale. This shot was taken on a recent weekday morning when I was serving as captain on the family ferry. In the distance was the Paul R. Tregurtha, the Queen of the Lakes -- which means the largest ship currently sailing the Great Lakes. I told the passengers in the cabins that she was passing in front of us and a couple dozen people came out to get a look and take a photograph of their own. Quite a sight on quite a morning.

Butterfly Season

Butterflies have been all over Isle Royale of late. The Monarchs and other varieties have been passing through and filling the woods. Sadly, yet necessarily, plenty of dead Monarchs have been found on the shores all around the island and its surrounding islands. Here's a shot of a Swallowtail on the Rock Harbor Trail recently. As most everyone knows, the major wildlife, what my zoologist daughter calls the Charismatic Megavertebrates, is down on the island this year. There have been a few sightings of a pair of twin calves and their mother in the Snug Harbor area (that's where the Queen IV docks and the Rock Harbor Lodge is located). But this is the best I have been able to do on wildlife shots since I've been out this year on my three crossings as captain of the Queen IV.

The Queen IV

I'm taking my regular shift at the helm of the Isle Royale Queen IV now that I've been up in Copper Harbor a couple weeks. This is a shot of me standing on Hunters Point across the Harbor from the dock in the center of town. That's the Queen IV, of course, in the distance. June is a great time to go to Isle Royale. People often ask -- almost every phone call -- about the best time to go. June is great because the lake weather is generally placid (though we did have a couple rough trips last week) and the weather is great for hiking -- and the island has fewer hikers and visitors and the bugs ain't bad at all and our prices are lower, too. But still people favor those last weeks of July and the first weeks of August despite all we do to get them to see that June is a great time to go. Think about it next year.

Low Water in Tobin Harbor

Here's a shot of Tobin Harbor a few days ago. You can see the water level is very, very low. It's not at record levels, but seems to be getting awfully close to the record, which took place in the 1920s. I've never walked in the spot I'm taking the photo from. Usually, the water is up to the level of the grass on the left of the photo, but now the edges of the bottoms of the harbors can be seen all around the island. I think the water has come up a bit in the past few days, maybe about 6 inches, but we have a long way to go before we come close to average lake levels. You will see some unusual sights when you visit the island this year because of the low water. By the way, the photo was taken on Tobin Harbor down near Suzy's Cave.

Captain Don R.

The 5 days-a-week runs have begun on the Queen IV. Here's a shot of my brother Captain Don R. Kilpela on the Queen Dock one eveing this week. That's our nephew Sam Eberhard behind him. Sam is working as a deckhand this year on the Queen, the third and last of the Hancock Eberhard boys to work for us in the family business. That's the Queen IV in the background, of course. Special day-trip prices for the month of June are now in effect, just $31 (!!) for a day-trip over to Isle Royale during the whole month of June. Come on up and join in the fun. It's a great day, 3 hours over, 3.5 hours there, and 3 hours back. We'd love to show you this great American wilderness, along with a great boat ride across the world's largest body of fresh water.

My next shot is of the Queen IV in the distance coming in past the Habor Haus restaurant this week. It had reportedly been a fabulous day on the Lake this day, with calm seas almost the entire way. We love these days as much as our patrons.

The Queen IV Arrives in Copper Harbor

The season must be just about to begin, since the Isle Royale Queen IV has moved from Houghton to Copper Harbor for the start of the 2007 season on May 15. This is a shot of our two-year-old vessel by Captain Donald Kilpela, Sr. of the arrival a couple days back. By the way, I stole this shot from my Dad's blog "Circumnaigating." You will want to check that blog out. It not only has an interesting series of posts on the history of Isle Royale passenger ferry service out of Copper Harbor, the GATEWAY to ISLE ROYALE as it has been called for decades, but also the current series on my Dad's adventures in the oil tanker business. The blog can be found at:

http://www.circumnavigating.blogspot.com/

A Poem Mentioning Isle Royale

If you know my blogs, you know that I write about literature and poetry on my Yvor Winters blog and, hence, you also must have guessed that I follow and study poetry. For the first time in my life, I ran across a poem that mentions Isle Royale in a national publication of some sort. The poem was published on Poetry Daily, a site I follow, and can be found at:

http://www.poems.com/poem.php?date=13633

I just had to mention it. I won't give you my opinion of it or an interpretation. It seems pretty clear to me. But it was rather interesting that I stumbled across it.

Opening of the 2007 Season Draws Near

We're getting ready! Captain John and Captain Don Kilpela report that work has begun on preparing the Isle Royale Queen IV for the 2007 sailing season to Isle Royale National Park. Our superb new boat is currently moored on the Houghton waterfront on Portage Lake, about 45 miles from Copper Harbor, as the crow flies. Last week, there was a huge blizzard, one of the biggest ever (even for the Keweenaw), in the western Upper Peninsula that dumped 30-50 inches of snow, depending on location. My brother John says that the new snow has mostly melted. My daughter Miranda has been on the reservation phone up in CH most of the late winter and spring. Say hello when you're making your reservations. Here's a shot of the Queen IV from a couple years ago, heading out for the island on a gorgeous morning. Not long now until we begin repeating this scene.

Isle Royale's Moose and Wolf Populations Drop in 2007

The report on this year's winter study of Isle Royale's famed moose and wolf populations has been released. Things continue to go badly for the moose, and now the wolves, as would be predicated, have declined as well. The MTU news release on the report is attached as a comment to this post.

2006 Slide Show, Photo 18

I close this year's slide show with a shot of some of our passengers disembarking from the Isle Royale Queen IV in Copper Harbor. This was taken the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, 2006. Note our beautiful new pier. It was a good summer. I hope you're planning a trip for 2007. More to come on this blog besides the annual slide show as the spirit moves me.

2006 Slide Show, Photo 17

A shot along one of Isle Royale's nicest and easiest trails, from Moskey Basin to Lake Ritchie. It is always a satisfying moment when after a couple miles of fine hiking you finally see Ritchie come into view down the ridge east of the lake through the tall aspens that form stands all along the way. The view has changed a lot since my early days on the island, when I was a teenager in the early '70s. The forest up this ridge was denser and you couldn't see Ritchie in the distance, except for a very small glimpse. But the aspens have grown taller in the 30 intervening years and there have been other changes along this trail. I really enjoy this moment and always pause to savor it, and Lake Ritchie really is a beautiful place to visit at any time.

2006 Slide Show, Photo 16

In early September, 2006, a touch of fall had come to the high ridges of the island. That's not so strange, but there was more color than usual, at least in my memory. The splash of color along the Greenstone Ridge, the spine of the island, was brought about by the maples turning early in 2006. This shot was taken on a wonderfully cool, sunny late afternoon on the trail from Daisy Farm to Mount Ojibway. It's a nice trail that gives you just about every kind of terrain found on Isle Royale in a two-mile hike -- ridge, forest, swamp. And there is the reward of the view at the end, that great vista to be seen from the Ojibway Fire Tower.

2006 Slide Show, Photo 15

Oh what an evening it was! This shot was taken from the Tooker's Island dock one August evening, at about 10:00. That's Inner Hill Island in the distance and Rock Harbor to the right. Open Lake Superior is on the left, out of the picture. My Dad used to say always that one of the special moments on the Big Lake is when the moonbeams fall across the water. And here they are, caught on film. You can order this as a large print from me. I can even frame it for you. My daughter Miranda and I are going to be putting up an Isle Royale Store some time soon, with clothing and photos and other IR items.

2006 Slide Show, Photo 14

The M/V Sandy passing by on Rock Harbor. The Sandy is the touring vessel of the Rock Harbor Lodge. It makes trips to various locations, near and far, on the northeast end of Isle Royale. I've taken many trips on the Sandy over the years and have always enjoyed Captain Ron Jeddda's narrations. The Sandy also makes a few trips up and down Rock Harbor as a water taxi, though the Lodge uses other, smaller, faster boats for that service more often. They can reach locations farther out on the island with their fast boats.

Isle Royale National Park

The Donald Kilpela family owns the Isle Royale Queen IV, the passenger ferry to Isle Royale National Park from Copper Harbor, Michigan. The three Kilpela brothers, Captains Don Jr., Ben, and John operate the vessel, which is 100 feet in length, carries up to 85 passengers, and has three cabins.

Isle Royale is a large island national park in Lake Superior, the largest fresh water sea in the world. The island is 55 miles northwest of Copper Harbor, which stands at the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Isle Royale is Michigan's only national park, one of the very few island national parks in the United States. It is mostly a spectacular northwoods wilderness, but it does have one developed area, Rock Harbor, to which our ferry service out of Copper Harbor sails nearly every day in summer and two days a week in May and September.

Copper Harbor and Isle Royale

Let's begin this overview with the town we sail from, Copper Harbor, which has long been known with good reason as The Gateway to Isle Royale. Copper Harbor's reputation as the Gateway started back in 1930, a dozen years before Isle Royale became a national park. It was then that the first charter service to the island started running out of Copper Harbor. Ferry service from the town to the island has continued ever since.

The current ferry operating between Copper Harbor and Isle Royale National Park is the Isle Royale Queen IV, a trim, fast 100-foot ship owned by the Donald Kilpela family, longtime Copper Harbor residents. The Kilpelas have owned the Isle Royale ferry service in Copper Harbor since 1971.

The ferry trip is a long one, some 55 miles from Copper Harbor. But that's the shortest distance for any transportation service from Michigan. The Isle Royale Queen IV makes the daily crossing in just over 3 hours. That's the shortest crossing time of any ferry service from either Michigan or Minnesota to the one developed area of the island, the Rock Harbor Entrance.

At Rock Harbor there's a small community. The Rock Harbor Lodge offers cabins and motel-style rooms. The Lodge, owned by Forever Resorts, has a superb dining room and grill that are open to all island visitors and also operates the Rock Harbor Marina, the Rock Harbor General Store, and other amenities.

The Rock Harbor Entrance is also the location of the Rock Harbor Visitors Center, operated by the U.S. National Park Service. There visitors can get complete information on making their Isle Royale visits memorable.

In addition, at the southwest entrance to the park, which is called Windigo (40 miles away from Rock Harbor), there is a small Visitors Center, boating facilities, and a snack bar.

What's there to do on Isle Royale?

Isle Royale offers wonderful lakeside and ridge-top views, superb wilderness hiking and backpacking (of moderate difficulty), lots of wonderful wilderness campgrounds, fine canoeing and kayaking, great wildlife viewing and fishing, endless photographic opportunities, and much more.

It's a huge island. Isle Royale is 45 miles long and about 10 miles wide. It's the second largest island in the Great Lakes. Isle Royale looks a lot like Copper Harbor and the Keweenaw Peninsula, but it's a wilderness and hence much more rugged and pristine. This makes it one of the most unusual places in North America, a spectacular and rugged Great Lakes wilderness that's very close to America's heartland. It is one of the largest wilderness parks east of the Mississippi River.

Except for the small developed area of Rock Harbor, the island is entirely wilderness. There are 165 miles of wilderness trails leading to more than 30 wilderness campgrounds, some large, most small and remote.

Visit the web sites of the National Park Service, the Isle Royale Queen IV, the Rock Harbor Lodge, and the web site and blogs of Copper Harbor's Captain Ben Kilpela for lots more information on visiting the island.

There are several ways to experience Isle Royale:

Stay at the Rock Harbor Lodge

There are lots of things to do during a stay at the island: day-hike, fish, sight-see, take boat tours, rent a canoe or kayak, and more. The Lodge offers excellent meals and rooms in various room-packages, or you can stay prepare your own meals in one of the Lodge's Housekeeping Cottages. With its superb setting on the shores of Rock and Tobin Harbors, the Rock Harbor Lodge can serve as your wilderness base camp with all the comforts of home.

Wilderness Hike and Backpack

Isle Royale's trails follow the Lake Superior shore and crisscross the vast, foresed interior, pass lakes and streams of all sizes, and traverse the high ridges of the island. There are dozens of possible hiking-backpacking itineraries that can be arranged and followed. Jim Dufresne's book on the island "Isle Royale Foot Trails and Water Routes" is the bible of island hiking. Captain Ben Kilpela sells an informative pamphlet on loop trails on the northeast half of the island. But are available through the Isle Royale Q ueen IV.

Canoe and Kayak

Isle Royale has become renowned across the world for the excellence of its sea kayaking and canoeing. There are many harbors and coves off Lake Superior and about two dozen inland lakes that have great fishing and superb views. Isle Royale has set up several portage systems for paddlers to get deep into the interior of the national park. If you love to paddle, Isle Royale is a must.

Visit for the Day

Yes, it's a great way to get a good taste of Isle Royale. The Isle Royale Queen IV offers fast round-trip service to Rock Harbor almost every day in summer. More and more people are taking advantage of day trips to the island from Copper Harbor. It takes a little over 3 hours to get to the island. You have 3.5 hours at the island. That's time for a long hike, a paddle, or some fishing. You can have even lunch at the Rock Harbor Lodge. Or you can simply relax at one of hundreds of isolated and beautiful spots along the trails near the Queen dock. Then it's 3 hours back to Copper Harbor, where you can have an outstanding meal at one of our village's fine restaurants and a great night's stay at one of our comfortable motels.

The Isle Royale Queen IV offers many Day-Trip specials throughout the summer. Check at the Queen dock in central Copper Harbor or the Community Center -- or give the Queen office a call. A Day-Trip from Copper Harbor is an excellent way to experience two of America's great natural treasures, Isle Royale and Lake Superior, the world's largest body of fresh water.

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Isle Royale has had a long and special connection to Copper Harbor. The businesses of Copper Harbor encourage you to give Isle Royale a try as part of your next vacation adventure.