Northern Wisconsin

After the excitement of the Minnesota State Fair, we headed north to the peace and quiet of Northern Wisconsin.  The area is known for its many water falls and beautiful state parks, as well as the coastal towns lining Lake Superior.

The weather turned cool and rainy as we got into the area, and one day, it rained most of the time. But we were on a drive that day and the days where we were touring, the weather was nice.

Our campground for 3 days was a small, private camp in Iron County. It was a home brew place, down a gravel road with sites that were not particularly level and access roads that were muddy and quite tight, but our view was spectacular. And it was quiet – being the end of the season, we were one of only a couple groups camping. On the last night of our stay, we were the only ones in the park.

We spent one day at Amnicon Falls State Park where we saw several beautiful falls on the Amnicon River and a covered bridge. Visitors were enjoying the water, though it was decidedly cold. The river runs through volcanic rock that is ancient, about a billion years old and sandstone that was formed from streams flowing into an ocean that covered most of Wisconsin millions of years ago. And of course, there was lots of evidence of the glaciers that crossed the area several times.

Another day, we drove up into a peninsula and took a boat tour of the Apostle Islands out of Bayfield. There are 22 islands, several that can be accessed by boat for camping and hiking. It was interesting to learn that one island has the largest concentration of black bears in the United States and that bears can be found on almost all islands. The islands are part of a National Lakeshore and we enjoyed visiting the National Lakeshore Visitor Center. The tour got cut short because of the wild waves that showed themselves when we were crossing between islands. A couple of people got sick and nobody could walk around.

We had to cut one day out of our visit to Northern Wisconsin because of the time we lost to the car trouble we had in Minneapolis. We drove across Northern Wisconsin and some of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the rain and camped in a Michigan state park overnight. The place was deserted – like much of the rest of the country, once Labor Day passes, the parks empty out. Things will start closing in mid-October.

Time to move to the eastern side of Wisconsin and continue our genealogy research.

We entered northern Wisconsin by heading north from Minneapolis to Duluth. It is the largest Great Lakes port.

There are lots of waterways in the Duluth area, this is the Saint Louis River.

Our campground was down this 3 mile long gravel road.

The campground was next to a 20 acre fishing lake. We had a front row seat.

At the turn off to the campground, we saw this sign. Later as we were headed back down the road, we actually saw the dog. He just stood in the middle of the road and didn't move until his owner yelled at him to move.

Fall is starting to make its presence known.

Several groups of people were playing in the water.  Too cold, in my opinion.

The upper falls at Amnicon Falls State Park run through volcanic rock.

The lower falls run through sandstone. Before becoming a state park, this area was quarried for the sandstone. Many buildings in Chicago were constructed using this rock.

There are 22 of these islands, making up the set known as the Apostle Islands. As we crossed from the leeward side of one island to another, we encountered huge waves.  We were supposed to pass the northern most island, but the captain cut the tour short. He said that Coast Guard had recommended restrictions to the area because of the waves.

The islands are sandstone, nowadays,  heavily covered with trees. Many different groups of people have called these islands home. Most of the islands are uninhabited nowadays.

One of the most photographed Life Stations in the Great Lakes.

This Coast Guard boat passed so fast, it looked like it was coming completely out of the water.

A short time later, the boat pulled up to the side of our tour boat, the captain said they were practicing a maneuver designed to get onto a boat.

The trees come clear down to the water.

 A fish camp still in use.

The town of Bayfield is the center of tours into the Apostle Island National Lakeshore.

There are some beautiful homes and churches in the town. And the downtown street was quite charming.

After the tour, we walked into the downtown area and ate lunch at a very nice neighborhood pub.

These weavings at the National Lakeshore Visitor Center capture images of several Native American women who had prominent roles in the community. I was fascinated by the description of how the weavings were created - a digital imaging machine translates pixel values to thread color and programs the digital weaver. The computer drives the weft and the human does the warp.

The mezzanine of the National Lakeshore Visitor Center included a mural depicting all the peoples that played a role in developing Northern Wisconsin along Lake Superior.