Midwest Guest

Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse stands tall at the tip of Michigan's Thumb on Lake Huron

The Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse near the tip of Michigan's Thumb marks a crucial turning point for vessels going into Saginaw Bay, warning boats of a shallow reef extending nearly two miles into Lake Huron.

Pointe aux Barques ("Point of little boats") takes its name from the French fur traders who originally traveled the area in birch bark canoes, gathering there each spring to trade furs and take on new supplies before another trapping season.

This lighthouse is among the 10 oldest lighthouses in Michigan, although it isn't the first light tower to grace this rocky point on the eastern shore of Lake Huron between Port Hope and Port Austin.

President James K. Polk appropriated $5,000 to build the first lighthouse at Pointe aux Barques in 1847. The location seemed ideal and there was an abundance of stone along the shore to use as building material.

The first lighthouse likely had a short stone tower and small dwelling. A recent archeological dig by students and staff from Western Michigan University unearthed some evidence of the original light and its footprint.

Peter Shook was the lighthouse's first keeper, arriving in 1848 with his wife Catherine and their eight children. Catherine took ill shortly after arriving at Pointe aux Barques, so Peter brought a doctor to the lighthouse to care for his wife. Peter and the doctor both drowned on a trip to return the doctor to his home. Catherine's appointment to take Peter's place made her Michigan's first female light keeper according to the state historical marker in front of the lighthouse.

Catherine's troubles continued as a fire destroyed her family's home at the lighthouse in 1849, but she remained on the job for another two years.  

Further damage occurred at the lighthouse as the original construction and materials weren't strong enough to withstand the weather and waves, and the tower likely wasn't tall enough to be easily visible or effective.

Plans to completely replace the lighthouse resulted in construction of an 89-foot-tall tower and attached dwelling of Cream City brick in 1857. The light with its Third Order Fresnel lens was visible more than 15 miles away on the lake.

A new two-story dwelling attached to the tower via a short enclosed passage had an arch-topped cast iron door separating both structures as a way to deter any possible fires from spreading.

In 1875, the Port Hope Life Saving Station appeared about 800 feet south of the lighthouse.

Changes at the lighthouse over the years included: the construction of a round oil shed to store flammable oils away from the tower in 1892 (the little red building visible in the photo below), construction of an assistant keepers' home in 1908, electrification of the light in 1932, and retirement of the last light keeper with automation of the light in 1939.

The Coast Guard decommissioned the life saving station and its 15 buildings in 1939, moving some of the buildings to the nearby Huron City complex of historic buildings.

The 1950s saw the removal of the Fresnel lens and its replacement by more modern beacons. Huron County acquired the lighthouse and its grounds in 1958 to use as a park, campground, and lighthouse museum.

Lighthouse County Park sits near on original site of the life saving station and has 110 modern and rustic campsites, a handful of rustic cabins, picnic areas, pavilions, and playground equipment. We've been out to the park at different times of the year, and it never seems overcrowded. We spotted only a few RVs and tents at the campground during our most recent visit in early August.

The non-profit Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse Society, formed in 2002, currently maintains the site as a museum open from May through early October. We found the museum open, but not staffed, later than the posted hours during our last visit.

The light tower is not generally open to the public, although you can look up the spiral staircase from the foot of the tower. We just missed the annual Lighthouse Heritage Days in early August when visitors could climb the tower for a small donation to help fund Pointe aux Barques maintenance.

Renovations and restoration continue at the lighthouse, and I remember visiting a few years ago before the tower's most recent paint job. This most recent visit, I spotted a sign in the museum saying that the Fresnel lens now at Huron City will soon return to the lighthouse

Want to learn more about the tip of Michigan's Thumb? Check out Huron County Michigan by the Huron County Historical Society. I always find these little Arcadia Publishing volumes of historic photos and short histories a fun way to learn a little about places I visit.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail Highlights

Driving along the shoreline is always a special treat for me, and I'm particularly fond of the designated routes encircling the Great Lakes.

We live close to the Ohio border, and we've traveled the Lake Erie Ohio Coastal Trail many times. The 293-mile route is primarily Ohio's portion of the 660-mile Lake Erie Circle Tour and wends its way through a variety of nature preserves, historic sites, big urban centers, and small towns.

You can drive the entire route in a day, or you can easily spend several days exploring the trail. We're close enough to the western end of the route that we occasionally do a portion of the route just east of Toledo as a day trip.

The Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail earned its designation as an Ohio State Scenic Byway in December of 2004, and became a National Scenic Byway in September of 2005. The Lake Erie Circle Tour earned its designation in the early 1990s.

The Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail runs from the Michigan border near Toledo, Ohio, and on through Conneaut, Ohio, to the Pennsylvania state line.

Here are some highlights of our travels along the Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail:

• Toledo-Stop by the legendary Tony Packo's for a Hungarian hot dog and some fried pickles and peppers, tour the city's Old West End neighborhood with its stately Victorian-era homes, and visit Toledo Museum of Art with its outdoor sculpture garden and renowned glass collection. Take in a Mud Hens' baseball game, or do a little shopping at the city's Farmers Market and the Libbey Glass Outlet.





• Maumee/Oak Harbor-Spend a night at the Maumee Bay State Park Resort or an afternoon on the resort's nature trail, where you can spot the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse in the distance. Nature lovers, hikers, photographers and birders will enjoy visiting the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area and Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge just east of Toledo. Don't miss the Ohio Bicentennial barn along the route near the wildlife sanctuaries.





• Sandusky/Marblehead-Most people know the Sandusky area best for the Cedar Point Amusement Park or island destinations like Put-In Bay. It's been quite some time since I've been to either place (which gives me more excuse to travel out this route yet again), but other favorite places in this section of the route include the city of Sandusky itself with its Carnegie Library and a trip out to the tip of the Marblehead Peninsula to see the Marblehead Lighthouse.

• Cleveland-Cleveland clearly rocks with us, as we've been there multiple times. I bought a charter membership to the city's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum, so we make it there quite often. You might not think of a cemetery as a trip destination, but Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery is an especially interesting stop for those who love history and taking photos. While you're at Lake View, don't miss the President Garfield Memorial or the Wade Chapel (the chapel's Tiffany-designed interior and windows earned it a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973). President Garfield's home in Mentor, Ohio, is just east of Cleveland and another must-see for history buffs.





• Ashtabula-There is plenty to see in this city near the eastern end of the route. Catch a glimpse of the Ashtabula Lighthouse or check out Point Park with its great view of the city's bascule bridge. The Hubbard House was an important Underground Railroad terminus and sits on a quiet side street within sight of Lake Erie.

I expect we'll travel this trail many more times as there are plenty of other places along the route we've yet to see, so don't be surprised to see a sequel to this post sometime in the future!

We have a GPS, but I still find a good map invaluable when we travel. Delorme publishes a series of map books covering each individual state, with each book including listings of features like parks, historic sites, museums, campgrounds, and other great information. These books are a must for road trips, and I've worn out several of the Michigan and Ohio Gazetteers from use over the years. Check out the Ohio Atlas & Gazetteer before heading out on the Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Glen Haven, Michigan: Vintage village view of region's maritime and logging history

Michigan's Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Park is a must-visit destination for those interested in northwestern Michigan's history, with historic districts that include the village of Glen Haven as a fascinating illustration of the region's early maritime and logging history.

The National Park Service purchased the entire village, including a handful of existing buildings, during the mid-1970s, and maintains it today with several restored buildings housing a general store, a blacksmith shop, and a couple of small museums.

While the village and its Lake Michigan shoreline is picturesque at any time of year, visitors particularly interested in Glen Haven's history may want to visit during the summer or early fall when most of the buildings and indoor exhibits are open.

General Store

The logging industry flourished in Michigan during the mid-1800s and, in 1857, C.C. McCarty established a settlement by building a sawmill and an inn on the beach west of Glen Arbor, the nearby village founded by his brother-in-law John E. Fisher. McCarty named his settlement Sleeping Bearville.

The small settlement got off to a somewhat sleepy start as area residents leaving to fight in the Civil War meant slower development. By 1865, McCarty built a large dock to take advantage of the village's protected harbor and proximity to logging operations as returning war vets spurred the village's growth.

Philo Chamberlain, president of the Northern Transit Company, acquired Glen Haven in 1878 as port for his 24-vessel fleet moving wood between Ogdensburg, New York, and Midwestern ports like Chicago and Milwaukee.

Blacksmith shop

D.H Day was the company's agent in Glen Haven and a major player in the town's development during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Glen Haven had 11 buildings by 1881. Several of those buildings still stand as part of the park's historic site, including a general store owned by Day and the village blacksmith shop.

Day worked to diversify the village's economy. He established a cannery operation in the 1920s to process and ship cherries and apples to market from his own farm and 5,000-tree orchard.

In 1901, the Sleeping Bear Point life-saving station was built. Shifting sands forced the operation to move in 1931, but advances in technology like radar, radios, and helicopters made the station obsolete and led to its closing in 1941.

The heyday of the big steamer boats faded as trucking companies expanded and the state's highway system improved. By the late 1920s, few passenger or cargo ships visited Glen Haven, and steamer owners going out of business spelled the end of the town's role as a maritime and transportation powerhouse by 1931.

Some tourists visited the area from the mid-1930s through the mid-1970s for sand dune rides in Dunesmobiles, but those rides ceased with the park service's purchase of Glen Haven and the surrounding area to preserve as the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

The last remaining village businesses closed during the 1970s as the park service planned restoration of Glen Haven to pretty much its 1920s appearance.

Blacksmith shop interior

Today, highlights at Glen Haven include:

• The General Store, which displays and sells items like kitchenware, food, and toys during the summer. It is a visitor center for the village.

• The blacksmith shop, one of the first buildings constructed in the village, is also open during the summer. Volunteers demonstrate the blacksmith's craft and explain the importance of the business during the village's early logging days, when blacksmiths helped keep the area's logging industry going with timely and expert repair of the logging equipment.

• The park service restores the Glen Haven Cannery building as a museum, and it is the largest public exhibit of Great Lakes small craft and equipment.

• The Sleeping Bear Point Coast Guard Station and Maritime Museum stages re-enactments of life-saving rescue drills during the summertime.

Want to learn more about the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and its history? Check out Sleeping Bear: Yesterday and Today by George Weeks, which the National Park Service site recommends as a good source of regional history information and historic photos of the area.

 

History buffs might also enjoy learning about the area's agricultural history and another historic area at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore by checking out my recent story, Northern Michigan's Port Oneida Rural Historic District revisited.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Northern Michigan's Port Oneida Rural Historic District revisited

Port Oneida's days as a thriving farming, lumbering, and port community may be far behind it, but you can still visit this northern Michigan ghost town today and listen closely to the wind whispering through the trees to learn a little about the region's agricultural history and culture.

We first photographed the Port Oneida Rural Historic District, which is now part of the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, in early 2009. The district covers more than 3,400 acres has over 120 buildings, many of them in various states of repair or restoration.

Our self-guided tour that winter day took us through the more accessible portions of the historic district, and the absence of leaves on the trees made for some interesting, and somewhat spooky shots, of an abandoned farm that the Weaver family called home from the late 1800s until around the end of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Read my story, Port Oneida Rural Historic District celebrates northern Michigan's agricultural heritage and my accompanying Photo Friday feature to learn more about our wintertime visit to Port Oneida, read a bit about the town's history, and see some of my Weaver Farm photos.

We visited Port Oneida again this summer. The little community still exudes some of the same sense of ghostly slumber we felt during the winter, although absence of winter snow meant we could explore more of the seasonal roads and farms tucked away from the main roads.

Even as the summer sun shone brightly overhead, the whitewashed exteriors of many of the buildings still gave them a ghostly air, even as the occasional splash of color lent a hint of life to the scene.

We occasionally spotted park service staff doing repair or restoration work. The mix of vintage and new materials in some buildings demonstrated the park's work to keep as much of the original buildings as possible, even if it meant reconstructing a whole new building or facade around an element like an original door and latch.

The Eckhert Farm, with its red facade and cellar entrance, played host to many community dances during the late 1800s, and the Eckherts grew corn, potatoes, and grain.

I particularly enjoyed visiting the Ole Olsen Farm, which sits across the road from the Eckhert farm. The Olsen family's main crops were wheat and potatoes, and one of the last Olsens to live in this house, with its green trim and tin roof, stayed there until the mid-1990s. I found myself alone on the front porch, where I sat a while and listened to the silence, punctuated by nothing more than the occasional chirp of a bird of buzz of an insect.

This time we were also able to walk into the North Unity School, a vintage 1870s cabin that once served as the community's one-room school. The school is near Narada Lake, although we didn't walk down to the lake because it was loon nesting season when we visited.

We checked back with the Weaver Farm, although the thick summer vegetation and leaves on the trees made it difficult to spot from the road. The thick summer vegetation also meant the mosquitoes were visiting at the same time!

The Weaver Farm appears to be one instance where the park service is letting nature take its course as the building appeared even more dilapidated that it did in early 2009. Portions of a door and wall that I remember as being somewhat intact earlier are missing now, and I wonder what, if anything, will be left of the house when we next visit Port Oneida.

Want to learn more about Port Oneida's history? Check out Farming at the Water's Edge by Marla McEnaney.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Photo Friday: The Bean and Me in Chicago

Chicago's massive "Bean" sculpture, the affectionate nickname for Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate sculpture in the city's waterfront Millennium Park, offers endlessly fascinating photo possibilities.

I included a handful of my favorite "Bean" images in yesterday's post, Chicago's Cloud Gate invites interaction, where I wrote about the sculpture, its meaning, and how it draws visitors into interacting with it.

Today, I want to share a few more Cloud Gate images and thoughts about photographing it.

There always seems to be a crowd around the sculpture on days best suited for taking photos, so people will invariably be part of any pictures you take. Having the crowd as part of the scene will give your photos a real sense of scale and a good idea of just how big "The Bean" is in relation to its surroundings.

One of the photos I posted yesterday looked almost like a black and white photo, although I shot it in color. I'm posting an alternate copy of it here that I created as a grey scale image in Lightroom.

I shot this image from a window in a room on the upper floor of a building across the street from the park. Look closely and you can see the birds perched on top of the sculpture!

Here I am shooting a quick self-portrait of myself as reflected in the sculpture.

Some of the coolest shots I got came when I took pictures from underneath the sculpture, where the concave surface created some great abstract-like images.

One thing that surprised me about my Cloud Gate images when I started going through them was the fact that all but one of the images I posted with today's post and yesterday's post were taken with a trusty little Canon PowerShot point-and-shoot. While I enjoy using my larger Canon EOS DSLR camera, I find that the smaller camera often gives me nice images more than suitable for using with my blog posts.

Check out my story, Shooting photographs for your blog, for a few tips and thoughts about the subject and a quick review of the book Confessions of a Compact Camera Shooter: Get Professional Quality Photos with your Compact Camera by Rick Sammon.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Chicago's Cloud Gate invites interaction

Sculptor Anish Kapoor's striking "Cloud Gate" occupies a prominent place in the heart of Chicago's Millennium Park and a prominent place in the hearts of many Chicago residents and visitors.

Parking lots and rail yards filled the space now occupied by Millennium Park until its development in the late 1990s as a major waterfront park and public gathering space chock-full of attractions like an ice skating rink, concert venue. Millennium Park always seems busy when we've visited, whether it was a hot and humid July day, or a cold November afternoon.

Kapoor, a British artist born in India, won the commission to create Cloud Gate in 1999 as his first public art installation in the United States. Complications and cost over runs resulted in a final cost of $23 million for the piece, up from the original $9 million cost estimate, with Cloud Gate's final completion and dedication in spring of 2006.

The 110-ton sculpture is 33 feet tall, 66 feet long, and 42 feet wide, but its massive size isn't the only thing attracting and fascinating the throngs of people we always saw around it.

Kapoor's sculpture may look, at first glance, simple, but as you circle the work to explore it, it presents you with many complex images reflected and multiplied by its shiny surfaces. From a distance, Cloud Gate looks like a big drop of liquid mercury or a huge silver bean, but moving closer to the piece allows visitors to see wonderfully warped visions of the city, themselves, and others in its highly reflective surfaces.

Maintaining the sculpture's shine requires twice-daily wipe downs by hand of its lower portion and semi-annual overall cleanings with liquid detergent.

Kapoor named the piece Cloud Gate, referring to it as "a gate to Chicago" and "a poetic idea about the city it reflects". People usually call it "The Bean" due to its overall shape.

Cloud Gate appears as if it is a single object, but it consists of 168 stainless steel plates over a steel frame. Workers polished the surfaces until the seams between the plates disappeared from view. The structure is hollow inside, and the 12-foot clearance underneath the bean-shaped sculpture creates a gateway into the piece.

I was particularly fascinated by taking photos from underneath the sculpture, where the concave surface, or "omphalos" (Greek for navel), of the sculpture reflected and re-reflected the people below it to create cool abstract images that sometimes reminded me of either of beautifully symmetrical kaleidoscope images or something I might see in a carnival fun house mirror.

These reflections are the result of Kapoor's wish to create a piece that encouraged visitors to enter and interact with it, while the sculpture's exterior reflects the city and its surrounding environment.

Mathematician Ivars Peterson has an interesting take on the sculpture at his blog, The Mathematical Tourist, where he explores the laws of reflection and geometry in relation to Kapoor's sculpture. Peterson says the piece offers "an enthralling lesson in optics" with its reflective images that include the viewer as part of the sculpture and visual experience.

Be sure to stop back here tomorrow for more of my Cloud Gate photos.

  

Want to learn more about Anish Kapoor and his work? Check out a new monograph of his work, Anish Kapoor by Bhabha, Bourrriand, de Loisy, and Rosenthal or a catalog published to accompany a 2008 exhibition of his work, Anish Kapoor: Past, Present, Future.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Wildlife at Isle Royale National Park

It may be rare to spot a moose, and even rarer to spot the normally reclusive wolf, on Isle Royale, but there is ample chance to see all sorts of wildlife as you visit the isolated national park in Michigan.

Park animals include moose, wolves, elk, snowshoe hares, foxes, ermine, mink, muskrats, bats, reptiles like garter snakes, loons, beavers, many different birds, and other small mammals. Caribou, lynx, and deer used to call Isle Royale home, but the last of those animals on the island died out between the 1920s and 1950s.

Wolves are particularly scarce on the island, with the Isle Royale wolf population declining from 24 to 19 animals between January 2009 and January 2010. The moose population reportedly declined from an estimated 530 to 510 animals during roughly the same time period.

Isle Royale is 56 miles from Michigan's mainland, and it is within 15 miles of Ontario and Minnesota shores.

Researchers speculate that moose arrived on the island by swimming there around 1900. The first wolves appeared on Isle Royale around 1950, most likely traveling to the island by walking over the ice from Canada during the winter.

Moose are loners and eat herbs, ferns, shrubs, leaves, and other vegetation. The carnivorous wolves live in packs and developed a taste for the island's moose.

This set up a unique environment with one predator (the wolf) seeking one primary prey (the moose). Moose provide about 90 percent of the wolves' diet, while beavers and snowshoe hares provide the rest of the wolves' menu.

Researchers began studying the relationship between the moose and wolf on Isle Royale by the late 1950s. They found that as the moose population increased, so did the wolf population, and the wolf population declined as the moose population declined.

Outside factors can influence the delicate balance. During the 1980s, an island visitor brought their dog to the park (which does not allow domestic pets). The dog passed on a virus to the wolves, and the wolf population sharply declined.

While we failed to see a wolf or moose during our visit to the island, we spotted many other animals as we walked the trails and canoed near Rock Harbor.  

One of my favorite finds was a large pileated woodpecker that perched nicely on a log along the trail as I snapped its photo.

I wasn't as enthused about the garter snake we found slithering across our path, but we knew he was pretty harmless as we let him quietly slither away into the woods.

You can often spot loons or mergansers in Tobin Harbor. Loons usually don't stray too close to humans, and park rangers remind visitors to especially keep their distance from the wary birds during nesting season.

I got a few nice photos of this snowshoe hare in his summer brown coat as he led the way through the forest.

And, of course, there are always squirrels, who aren't shy around humans. This little guy joined us for lunch on the deck at Rock Harbor Lodge's Greenstone Grill, but we weren't giving him any of our burgers or beer!

 

Want to learn more about the wolves on the island? Check out The Wolves of Isle Royale: A Broken Balance by Rolf O. Peterson.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Photo Friday: Snowshoe Hare at Michigan's Isle Royale National Park

This snowshoe hare is just one of the residents we encountered while exploring Michigan's Isle Royale National Park.

This hare is still wearing his thin, brown summer coat in early September, but his fur transforms into a thick, fluffy, white coat as summer segues into autumn and, finally, into the cold, northern winter.

The hare's brown coat provides the animal with a natural camouflage that allows it to blend into the earthy colors of twigs and leaves covering the forest floor during the warmer months of the year. The animal's white winter coat makes it more difficult for predators to spot the animal during the snowy season.

The seasonal change in coats happens each spring and fall, with the changes in coat color taking about ten weeks each season. The hare has its distinctive black-tipped ears year round.

Hares also have larger feet and longer hind legs than cottontail rabbits, and are a bit smaller than jack rabbits. These hares earned their name for their large feet, covered by thick and dense white fur during the winter, that act sort of as snowshoes to keep them from sinking into the snow.

Check back here next week for a few more photos and information about Isle Royale's abundant wildlife.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Day adventures at Isle Royale National Park

Isle Royale has 165 miles of hiking trails, and while many of the wilderness trails can be quite steep and challenging, like trails that lead out towards the highest elevation at Mount Desor (1,394 feet), there are plenty of trails in the Rock Harbor area suitable for families or casual day hikers.

We stayed at a cabin in the island's Rock Harbor Lodge, using it as a base from which to explore some of the 20-plus miles of trails in the eastern end of the park, canoe in the calm water of Tobin Bay, and take plenty of photographs. The Rock Harbor area is admittedly a very small part of Isle Royale, but we never ran out of things to do or places to explore during our week there.

Even though the trails around Rock Harbor are a little closer to civilization and most of them are fairly level, they still offer a lot of scenic variety and varying terrain.

We hiked the network of short trails in the area that included the Scoville Point Trail, the Stoll loop, the Tobin Harbor Trail and the path to Suzy's Cave over the course of the week.

Scoville Point offered a sweeping lake view from a narrow spit of rock jutting out into the water. The Scoville Point trail is 4.2 miles and includes the 1.8-mile Stoll Memorial loop.

The Albert Stoll Jr. Memorial Trail took us from Rock Harbor out to a marker at Scoville Point memorializing the conservation editor who worked at the Detroit News from 1923 until 1950 and played a large part in a 25-year effort to preserve Isle Royale as a national park.

Suzy's Cave takes its name from a woman named Suzy Tooker, who summered as a child on the nearby Tooker Island owned by her father. The young Suzy often canoed over to Rock Harbor to play in the cave, formed by waves in an earlier era when Lake Superior levels were higher than they are today. The cave is between the Rock Harbor and Tobin Harbor Trails.

Our cabin rental included a half-day use of one of the marina's canoes, which we used to explore Tobin Harbor by water. The sheltered inlet had cottages and a post office before Isle Royale became a national park. The water was perfect for flat-water paddling.

 

Want to learn more about Isle Royale day trips and hikes? Check out Isle Royale National Park Foot Trails and Water Routes by Jim DuFresne.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Things To Do
Houghton

Things To Do
Copper Harbor

Rock Harbor Lodge is a great base for day trips on Isle Royale

If you're not into backwoods camping, but still want to enjoy some of Isle Royale's wilderness, staying in at the island's Rock Harbor Lodge is a great way to experience some wilderness while still enjoying the comforts of home.

The lodge has 60 motel rooms, but we opted to book space in one of their 20 duplex cottages and use that as our base for various day hikes, photo-taking excursions, and a little canoeing.

We docked at Rock Harbor and loaded our luggage onto a wheeled cart for the short walk back into the wooded area to our cabin.

The cabin was tucked into the woods enough so that you were barely aware of any of your neighbors, and it was only a short walk back down to the dock, dining room, grill, camp store, and a marina where visitors could book boat tours, boat rentals, and guided fishing trips.

Furnishings weren't fancy, and the space included a bedroom, bathroom, kitchenette, and studio seating area. The lodge also provided linens, towels, and kitchen utensils for cabin guests.

The feature that really wowed us, though, was the large picture window overlooking a wooded area and serene Tobin Harbor. We spent one memorable night parked in front of these windows in our darkened cabin as we watched a spectacular thunderstorm that rolled in over Lake Superior and continued throughout much of the evening.

You could pack in food or check out the limited selection of groceries at the dockside store. You purchase supplies here if you're happy with something like cereal, or maybe eggs and fried bologna. We cooked breakfast a few days, but we opted to eat most of our meals at the lodge's main dining room or Greenstone Grill.

The menu at the dining room isn't large, but it invariably features fresh lake trout. Meanwhile, the Greenstone Grill has a nice little dockside patio, the perfect place to enjoy a beer and a burger dockside.

The lodge's is only open from late May until early September, and we'd booked our stay to end on the last day of the season.

You do have to be flexible when you visit Isle Royale, as we found when we ended up spending an extra day on the island. The weather on scheduled departure date looked great at Rock Harbor, but rough water farther out on Lake Superior caused by the thunderstorm we watched from our cabin on last scheduled night on the island caused postponement of our ferry trip back.

While the Isle Royale Queen IV ferry we'd taken to the island "almost never cancels" summer trips due to weather, they do warn travelers of possible delays with the ferry schedule in late summer or September. Delays usually 4 to 8 hours, according to the ferry company, but we experienced a full day delay.

This wasn't too bad for us as the lodge simply rebooked guests from the previous night back into their cabins. Some people bemoaned the fact that the grill and dining room ran out of beer early in the evening, and the wine supply was running dangerously low. I felt sorrier for the campers who spent the night out in the storm and hiked at least several miles to the marina, only to have to turn around and hike back out to their remote campsites.

We stopped by the camp store to see if we could find some reading material for our last night on the island. They had a handful of books Nevada Barr mysteries left, so I found something I hadn't read before. Meanwhile, Tim had read all of the books at the store, so he ended up reading the Susan Wittig Albert mystery I'd brought over and finished the night before.

Once we checked back into the lodge and resettled back into our cabin, we used our ferry-delay day to squeeze in a little extra hiking and picture-taking before returning to the mainland on the next day’s ferry.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Hotel Review
Copper Harbor

Hotel Review
Houghton