Apostle Islands

Growing up in Utah, National Parks were a natural part of our family vacations, even in my not so outdoorsy family (we never camped in a park, but loved staying at the Best Western just miles from the park entrance). Ben and I's big 1st year anniversary trip was a backpacking excursion in Yellowstone. And when we lived in Virginia we loved our (usually twice) yearly trips to Shenandoah National Park. Basically, the National Park system has always been an important part of my vacation life. So I've been dreaming of visiting Apostle National Lake Shore from the day we first moved to Wisconsin. It is as close to a National Park as we get here in Wisconsin, and I figure it's a prep step in our run up to Isle Royale National Park, just across the border in Minnesota.

Anyway, this summer just felt like the right time to finally get up there. Reid's getting old enough that if we don't start camping regularly it won't feel like part of his childhood experiences, and Mara's just old enough that the idea of camping with her doesn't sound incredibly terrible. Thankfully, our house was booked out twice this summer, otherwise we were going to forgo our annual Utah trip and take this week long camping trip instead. I just love Wisconsin in the summer and it always feels like such a waste to spend any of our summer break leaving this beautiful state and venturing into the smoldering hot desert. 

I guess all this is to say, the stars felt like they aligned just for us on this trip. On our cruise of the park the ship's captain even said, "Be sure to thank whoever does your vacation planning because they picked the perfect day for this cruise." And then the locals on the beach of Lake Superior told us they were shocked "that after the winter we had, we have such great water temperatures." It just felt like everything worked out so perfectly for us to be there, enjoying the island life. 

It's about an hour drive from Copper Falls state park to Apostle Islands, but we broke that up with a stop for lunch at the Culver's in Ashland. When I first put eyes on Ashland I was just blown away by it's beauty, but each Lake Superior town we visited after that just got more and more beautiful. By the time we returned to Ashland two days later I was kind of "meh" about the whole thing, ha! It's amazing how much we can take the beauty of a new place for granted. 

At this point in our vacation it was pretty clear that Nell and Coraline were my sidekicks and Reid and Mara were daddy's little duo. Occasionally Mara and Coraline would switch camps, but Nell was pretty stuck by my side and Reid enjoyed his long chats with Ben.

Our cruise took us by several Island landmarks. Pictured above are the 2 lighthouses on Michigan Island. 

Of course we also had lots of views of the amazing rock formations. 

Though I'm not sure I captured the Eagle nests in any of these pictures, we did see two different mating pairs.

Do you see how amazingly clear that water is? It was crazy beautiful! I can't believe how deep it gets just feet away from the island. It makes me realize if all the water was sucked out of the lake, these little islands would truly be ginormous mountains.

The main reason I picked this cruise was the shipwrecks. It turns out they really should just be called ship dumps, but oh well, it was still pretty cool to look through the glass bottom floor and spy an abandoned ship. And while you might not believe it, that photo above is also of an abandoned ship (not just weird looking trees) that washed up to the shore of the island. Apparently you can dive to deeper shipwrecks, but this cruise was just right for our little family. 

After the cruise we hopped on the ferry and headed to our campsite. Even though Madeline Island is part of the Apostle Islands, it is not part of the National Lakeshore. I assume this is because it had too much development at the time of adoption into the National park system. It certainly isn't any less beautiful than the others, it just happens to have a city of some several hundred residents, some farm land, and a long history of vacationing. As a result it has a State Park that was just perfect for camping and swimming. 

Our camp ground was physically a lot closer to the neighboring sites than it had been in Copper Falls State Park, but aspen and birch trees grew so thick that we had quite a bit of privacy between sites. There were two dead snakes on the road just past our site and Mara quickly became obsessed with them. She wanted to go walk past them every five minutes. Nell was usually kind enough to oblige. 

We decided to do a quick boardwalk hike out to the beach after setting up camp but before cooking dinner. It was pretty amazing to walk through a thick mosquito infested swamp only to come out the other end on a beautiful sandy beach. During all our many trips on this boardwalk hike (Reid had 5 total), we never once took a picture and that is a real shame, because this gem of a beach was our favorite part of the entire week long trip.

That evening, after all the girls and I were sound asleep, Ben and Reid took a star gazing hike out to that beach. I can't even begin to imagine the beauty they beheld. I conjure up images of my own childhood sky and I just wonder at the grandeur. The next night Reid tried to re-enact the whole thing with me, but we gave up 30 to 60 minutes too early. Even still it was a very peaceful place to experience as dusk settled into dark.

In the morning we all tried to take a family hike along the whole length of the beach, but that was a total fail. Kids were pouting, crying, begging to be carried and just plain miserable to be around. Well, I say kids but I really mean "the girls." Reid was a pretty good trooper for the whole trip. I offered to take all the girls back to the campsite, but Nell insisted on staying behind with the boys. Knowing Coraline and Mara's rotten behavior would best be cured with a nap, I spent the next 45 minutes to an hour driving around the island while they sat passed out in an air conditioned minivan. 

I also knew Ben likely needed a nap to cure his crankiness ;). So once we finished up lunch I took all the kids downtown to the Island museum. We learned quite a bit of history and had fun playing with anything that was appropriate for them to touch. I am constantly amazed by how poorly I was taught the history of Native Americans. Growing up in Utah, I think I really only ever heard about the tribes that inhabited that area. I really had no idea how many millions of natives were murdered, lied to, and mistreated across the entire continent. It was pretty amazing to read about the natives of the island. Locals got along with them, and even benefited from their trade. However, the US government wanted their land and resources and demanded they leave. One of the chiefs traveled all the way to DC, with documents from locals supporting his cause, asking for permission to stay and take part in the new nation. He caught some good luck and a treaty was signed, but as was evidenced by the lack of Natives on the Island, it was only a matter of years that the treaty (like all other US, Native American treaties) was broken. It sometimes feels like too much to take in, but I'm grateful we are better educating citizens about this dark past now. 

(pictures)

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach. It. Was. Heaven. I seriously can't believe how perfect the swimming conditions were. All the kids were having a blast with Ben. He was throwing them in, riding them on his back, and any other shenanigans they could think of. We could play out 40 feet from the beach and it still wasn't much above my waist.

There were several giant tree logs floating around and they made great natural playgrounds for the kids. The sand on the beach was also pretty perfect for digging, burring, and building. My favorite part of all though, was when we spotted a family of loons. There must have been about 6 babies. The mom would get so far ahead and the little ones would jump up and run across the water to catch up to her. Then, just 90 seconds later, this would repeat itself as they had fallen behind again. It was absolutely wonderful to witness.