A trip to Isle Royale National Park is different than many other parks. It is one of the least visited parks for good reason… getting there is a little more difficult because you can’t drive there. This national park is on an island located in Lake Superior and is at least 15 miles from shore. There are only two ways onto this park: boat or airplane. We chose to take a 1.5 hour boat ride from Grand Portage, MN on the Sea Hunter III to the Windigo side of the island. Now once you get to the Island what are you going to do? There is the short day trip that many people utilize and spend about 4 hours exploring Isle Royale before returning to the mainland. If you decide to stay longer you will need to spend the night. Be prepared as there is only one small resort area which is likely booked and requires getting on the right boat to get there as it is on the opposite side of the island from Windigo. The last option is camping. We chose to camp for three nights allowing us the opportunity to explore the island a little further.
Our first night we decided to make it relatively easy and stay at the nearest camp area known as Washington Creek. This location is easy as there where shelters available which are enclosed on three sides and screened on the forth side allowing for air movement while keeping out bugs and other curious critters. Also, water suitable for drinking is nearby and a short distance away there are bathrooms with running water. Our shelter was right on the banks of Washington Creek giving us a relaxing view when waking up. One of the only downfalls of this camping area is the noise coming from boats, airplanes, and a higher population of people than most other areas. Well, a lot of noise compared to the solitude experienced elsewhere but substantially less than even a small town.
The next morning involved grabbing some oatmeal for breakfast then cleaning up and packing it all away in preparation for our hike to Huginnin Cove to spend the next night. Did I mention that you need to bring in all of your supplies and bring them all back out with you again as this area is designated as ‘Leave No Trace’? That means backpacking all of your necessary items if you do not have a boat of your own docked somewhere around the island. We could have spent three nights in Washington Creek and just did day hikes without all of our gear but our purpose in traveling to all these different parks is to experience new and different areas so we decided to try our hand at real backpacking. Thankfully we did a trial run a few weeks earlier allowing us to be more prepared for multiple nights living out of backpacks.
