1 Aug 2022 - Grand Tour of the Apostle Islands

 1 Aug

This afternoon we headed out  🎶"on a three hour tour" 🎶but ours had a much better outcome than the USS Minnow and Gilligan's Island!  Today we explored the archipelago, or island chain, of the Apostle's.  There are 22 of them all together surrounded by the cold, blue waters of Gitche Gumee (Lake Superior).  Todays trip brought us by 10 of them:  What a beautiful part of this country, and so much history!  

The Grand Tour route

Our craft

Our catamaran provided a very stable ride today

We arrived early (imagine that) and therefore got our pick of the seats when we boarded.  We headed up to the top for best view as recommended by the crew, and headed to the front, port side of the boat.  

While waiting in line we met a young couple from Tomah WI near my old stomping grounds at Volk Field.  They had camped at Fort McCoy, attended the Warrens WI Cranberry Festival, etc so we had a lot in common.  They ended up sitting right behind us on the boat, and also happen to be camping at the same campground we are staying.  The line kept getting longer and longer to board the boat.  

As we headed out, I took a couple pictures of Bayfield WI with the harbor in the foreground.  Very scenic town.  

Some of the historic old buildings overlooking the harbor

Downtown Bayfield near the harbor

Our journey first took us by Basswood Island and then Hermit Island.  Many of these island were involved with quarrying sandstone back in the 1800's.  Evidence of this is still visible on the shore today.

The shorelines of these islands are beautiful.  It is nice they all fall under to governance of the National Park Service now, so they are preserved rather than developed commercially.  

A Bald Eagle standing watch over the shore.

Sandstone shoreline with various colors from minerals

The route then took us past Oak, Manitou, Otter and Rocky Islands before arriving at the furthest most point, Devil's Island.  

Rock landing area on Devil's Island

Endless rock caves along the shoreline

More rock caves carved by the constant water erosion

Soon the Devil's Island Lighthouse came into view.  As with all of the six Apostle Island Lighthouses, it is long since electrified and automated.  All of the lighthouses are still operational and unmanned,  but less relied upon with modern GPS navigation.   
 

The top of the Devil's Island Lighthouse

Island visitors greeting us as we passed by!

More of the Devil's Island Lighthouse

Everyone on our boat was excited to see the lighthouse.  

Scenic rock formations all along the coast

Devil's Island Lighthouse as we passed by

We rounded the tip of Devil's Island and headed past Bear Island to Raspberry Island.  This island is small compared to many but has one of the nicest lighthouses.  Tomorrow we will travel back to Raspberry Island to explore the lighthouse further.  Today, from a distance, we got a glimpse of what we will see tomorrow! 

The beautiful Raspberry Island Lighthouse

The stairway we will climb tomorrow to visit Raspberry Lighthouse

This shows the work they did to reinforce the shoreline near the lighthouse to prevent erosion from consuming the lighthouse 

We were back about four hours later which is about the same as we will be gone tomorrow.  It was a real nice cruise and glad the weather was good for it.  Tomorrow's cruise departs at 1415 hrs and we are looking forward to visiting Raspberry Island!