Isle Royale National Park…Yes, No, Maybe, Made It!

 

Isle Royale shoreline.

Lake Fanny Hooe Resort in Copper Harbor, MI, is a private campground on a small lake and our basecamp to visit Isle Royale National Park. We arrived on Sunday, 7/12, and got settled in. The resort is situated on the shore of Lake Fanny Hooe and has a lodge, boat rentals, and a variety of campsites from big pull-throughs out in the open to small tent sites nestled under the trees. We were next to Bob and Carole, and I felt like we got lucky with our 30-amp sites surrounded by vegetation and next to a tiny creek.

Our basecamp to visit Isle Royale National Park.

Lake Fanny Hooe.

Our campsite (#44), Bob and Carole's site is on the left (#43).

We had only two more national parks to visit in the Lower 48 and Isle Royale was one of them. This unique and remote island archipelago in the northwestern portion of Lake Superior became a national park in 1940. Isle Royale National Park preserves 132,018 acres of land that was federally designated as wilderness in 1976. The park consists of one large island surrounded by over 400 smaller islands and encompasses a total area of 850 square miles. It is the least visited national park in the continental US, but has the highest rate of repeat visitors.

The only way to get to the park is by boat or seaplane. There is ferry service from Copper Harbor, MI and Grand Portage, MN. Seaplanes leave out of Hubbell, MI and Grand Marais, MN. The boat ride from Copper Harbor is a bit over 3 hours each way. Most people go to the Island and stay a few days, either backpacking or staying at the Rock Harbor Lodge. No bikes or motorized vehicles are permitted on the Island. If you’re doing a day trip (out and back the same day) you have just 2-3 hours on the Island. No domestic pets are allowed on the Island, so a day trip was our only option.

Transportation options to the Island are limited.

We somehow managed to time our stay in Copper Harbor for a record setting heat wave. Ugh. Because it’s such a long day, we decided to alternate, with Bob and Carole visiting the park on one day while we went the next. That way we’d always have someone in camp to take care of the pups. Since we planned to do a longer hike, Bob and Carole graciously offered to go on Monday, the hottest day of our stay. It hit 96° with ridiculously high humidity and it was still 91° at 10pm!

Copper Harbor is a tiny town catering to tourists.

As it turned out, I was so glad we were home. We struggled with our electrical hookup all day long. Our sites only had 30amp hookups, so we used our 50amp cords and an adapter. It didn’t help that the power poles were at the front and between the sites, requiring multiple cords to reach the outlet. Rog spent hours troubleshooting and trying to isolate the problem.  His best guess was one of our 50amp cords wasn’t working properly. The voltage kept fluctuating and dropping so the surge protector would kick in and kill the power from the pole, shutting off the air conditioner. Ugh! He bought a new 30amp cord, but that didn’t solve the problem either. We finally just turned on the generator and ran both air conditioners, trying to get the temps in the coach down to a reasonable level.

The incredibly funky location of our power pole.
(They are usually at the back of each site, not in the front between sites!)

In the afternoon, I took Raney to visit Ruby in Bob and Carole’s coach, it was cool when I arrived but it got warmer and warmer. The air hadn’t kicked on, so I looked at their thermostat and it was 95° inside! Rog checked and their circuit breaker had tripped. It happened twice, so we brought Ruby over to our coach to hang out with Riley and Raney. Had we all gone to the Island thinking the pups would be fine since we had power and air conditioning, it could have been catastrophic. Neither one of our rigs would have stayed cool, in truth they would have been dangerously and possibly lethally hot for the pups. Sometimes it pays to be cautious!

Raney loves visiting Ruby's house. Lol.

Afternoon siesta.
Generator is running and the air conditioning is on. Lol.

On Monday, Bob and Carole enjoyed Isle Royale but they did not enjoy the boat ride! High winds whipped up the lake, and it was an extremely rough ride. A large percentage of the travelers were green and chumming. The person sitting across from them threw up over half a dozen times. They said he was very apologetic and tried to be discreet, but that couldn’t have been fun for anybody. We later talked to a family that had been on the same ferry as Bob and Carole and they said the boat actually ran out of barf bags. Ick!!

Boarding the Barf Boat. Lol!

Bob and Carole had blue skies at Isle Royale.

We were looking forward to our visit on Tuesday and made sure to pack the Dramamine. Lol. Rog and I were at the dock a little after 7am for the 8 o’clock sailing. As we approached, the staff told us the departure was delayed. The skies were clear and it was a beautiful day, but those pesky winds were still at it. In fact, the whole town had lost power. The staff said they were going to leave at noon and do a “turn and burn”. They would motor to the Island as quickly as possible, off load passengers, load up those returning, and leave immediately. We could spend six plus hours on a very choppy lake for maybe a half hour on the Island or get a full refund. They actually told us, “You do not want to be on this boat!” Lol.  The ferry doesn’t sail on Wednesdays and we were scheduled to leave Copper Harbor Thursday morning. We decided to take the refund, but I was super bummed!!

Back at the RV, I immediately called the seaplane company but they had no openings for either Tuesday or Wednesday. I had reluctantly resigned myself to missing one of the two parks we had yet to visit, when Bob and Carole offered to stay another night if we could get a spot on Thursday’s sailing. First, I had to see if the campground could extend our stay. It turned out they could, we’d just have to move to another site. Then I went back to the Isle Royale ferry office. The outbound boat was technically full, but they said there are usually no shows. I told them if we were going to change our reservations, they had to guarantee we’d be on the boat. They added our names to the list. Done!

The winds kept up most of Tuesday and brought us smoke from the wildfires in Canada and Minnesota.  Wednesday morning we woke to what looked like a thick fog, but my burning eyes, tight chest, and the overwhelming smell of campfires confirmed that it was indeed smoke. In spite of the poor air quality, Rog decided to mountain bike one of the nearby trails. He did a little over 13-mile loop linking Raptor Ridge and parts of several other trails.

Oh, what a difference a day can make.

Rog on the trail.
Do you see that crazy ramp? Even Rog took a pass.

Meanwhile, Bob, Carole and I opted to explore the area on four-wheels. Lol. We drove a scenic loop to the top of Brockway Mountain Lookout. Unfortunately, the views were less than stellar. We went south as far as Eagle River and stopped at several beaches and parks to do a little rock hounding. Lake Superior is huge and I found it interesting how different areas of the shoreline could be. Everything from soft sand to rocky cliff faces and (my favorite) beaches with vast swaths of lake tumbled stones.

Not much to see at Brockway Mountain Lookout. 

Even with the smoke, the shoreline is beautiful.

I spent many happy hours scouring the rocky beaches.

Mother Nature's rock tumbler. lol.

One last rocky shoreline picture. :) 

Sorry, I lied. Here's another one I really liked. Lol.

How about this for a fun rental in Copper Harbor? (Only $445 a night.)

Of course, we also did a little shopping too. One of the highly recommended stops was a little bakery run by the monks of Poorrock Abbey. We pulled in and the line was ridiculous! The shop is tiny and I don’t think there were ever less than 20 people in line. Carole and I waited patiently and finally got our shot at a huge variety of jams, jellies, fruitcakes, scones, cookies, and other yummy baked goods. After spending so long in line, I figured I better make it worth the wait and loaded up. Lol.

The Jampot.

The delicious jams and baked goods were worth the wait!

Jacob's Falls was a short walk from the Jampot.

We also stopped at a couple of the local stores, including the Agate Shop in Copper Harbor. There are no Petosky stones to be found in the wild here, but there are Yooperlites! These unassuming stones look like speckled granite in the daylight, but contain sodalite that glows neon orange under UV light. We each bought one and a UV flashlight to continue the hunt. There are lots of fun treasures to search for besides the Yooperlites including lightning stones and stones with copper inclusions. We had no luck finding our own glow-in-the-dark rocks, but we still brought home plenty of fun finds.

Yooperlites!

 

Two more of the treasures I brought home.
(If you can't find them, buy them! Lol.)

On Wednesday evening we moved our coach to a different site and guess what? The power and air conditioning ran perfectly. So, after all the time and effort that Rog spent trying to figure out what was wrong, it turned out to be their power pole! Although we’re glad we don’t need to repair or replace anything on the rig, I’m still not happy he wasted a whole day troubleshooting.

On Thursday, Rog and I again made our way to the dock. It was so smokey you could barely see across the harbor, but the lake was totally calm. I didn’t know if the visibility, or lack thereof, would interfere with our departure. But I needn’t have worried, we boarded on time and it was smooth sailing all the way to Isle Royale (no barf bags needed, Lol). 

Preparing for departure. Finally!

Approaching Isle Royale.

The Isle Royale Queen IV has docked, and...

...we have officially made it to Isle Royale National Park!

"Gone Fishing" was a fun harborside sculpture.
I did glimpse an otter in the harbor, but he didn't hang around for a picture.

We disembarked around 11:40am and, with a 2:45pm departure, had about three hours to explore the Island. After the mandatory safety briefing warning us to give the resident wolves and moose plenty of room, we took off on the Stoll Memorial Trail, a 1.8-mile loop. We added part of the Scoville Point Trail to make it a 3-mile hike.

The trail wound through the trees along the shore.

Peekaboo views through the trees.

Rog at one of the overlooks.

Smokey views of the neighboring islands.

There was too much smoke to see any distance, but there was plenty of beauty and interesting things to see up close and personal. The wildflowers were beautiful and, even during the short hike we did, the habitat changed dramatically with some areas looking like excellent marshy moose habitat and others looking more like Alpine forests where the wolves might lurk. 

So many gorgeous wildflowers.

Doesn't this look like a good spot for a moose?

The trail changed from boardwalks through the wetlands to...

...rocky alpine terrain. 

Isle Royale was mined for copper in the 1800's.
This site was the Smithwick mine with a timber lined shaft that was 96' deep.

I was really hoping for a glimpse of a wolf or moose, but sadly they were nowhere in sight. Probably taking a mid-afternoon nap, although they both left calling cards for us to find. Lol. The ecological study of wolves on Isle Royale began in 1958 and is the longest running large mammal predator-prey study on earth.  The research has shown that all 37 members of the Isle Royale wolf population are descended from a single female, who arrived during the late 1940s. The moose population is currently estimated at 524 which is a dramatic drop from the 2,000 moose counted in 2019. The decrease is attributed to periods of harsh winter conditions and the expanding wolf population.

Who's scat is that?
Moose on top, wolf below.

We had smooth sailing back to Copper Harbor. At dusk we tried one last time to score a Yooperlite but had no luck. No worries, we depart in the morning for another spot famous for agate hunting! 

Back on the boat for the return trip to Copper Harbor.