Blogs from Ashland, Wisconsin, United States, North America

La Pointe on Madeline Island, Wisconsin Geographically, Madeline Island is one of the Apostles. In fact it is the largest of the 22 islands stretching for 14 miles along the southernmost part of the island group, just a short ferry ride from Bayfield. At the maximum, it is five miles wide. At the time French explorers discovered it in the 1600s, it was a major homeland for the Ojibwe Indians, who still maintain a substantial presence on the island. But Madeline Island is not part of the National Lakeshore. As such, it is developed, and has private property available for purchase. There is one town, pretty much on the point closest to the mainland, named, appropriately, La Pointe and this town has been there for centuries, first as a fur trading post, and later as a ... read more

Myers Beach Trail, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Cornucopia, Wisconsin I can appreciate that forecasting the weather around the Great Lakes can be next to impossible. As they say, the Lake is the Boss, and when she decides to send some weather towards the mainland, well, there’s just no arguing with that. The recent storms at Houten are testimony to how angry she can get. So if the forecast calls for partly cloudy skies but no rain and it ends up raining cats and dogs, well, that’s just luck around the lake. The forecast for the Fourth was really not too bad - the day was supposed to be cloudy, but rain wasn’t supposed to come in until six or so. We figured that would work in our favor, by putting a damper, literally, on the noisy ... read more

Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Bayfield, Wisconsin Presque Isle isn’t really an island. But it used to be when the lake levels were higher than they are now. Around 2500 years ago, though, the lake dried up a bit and fell enough to establish a land bridge between Presque and Stockton. Sand has filtered into the windward side of the landbridge to form what geologists call a tombolo, a relatively small spit of land connecting two larger ones. What you have here, then, is a narrow strip of land, low in elevation, creating two bays, one on each side. The windward side bay is Julian Bay. It has become a ‘singing sand’ beach - one that makes a kind of squeaky song when you step on it. We encountered singing sand last year, in our explorations of ... read more

Visitor Center, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Bayfield, Wisconsin There are just four National Lakeshores and all four of them, as you might expect, are on the Great Lakes. I’m not finding much difference between a Lakeshore and a Seashore, in the National Park System. And both of them are bigger deals than people seem to think. We already knew that National Parks deserve several days to fully explore. But we discovered in last years trip that seashores (Gulf Islands, Canaveral, Cumberland, Cape Lookout, and Cape Hatteras) deserve much more than a single day. So we bumped up our planned stays at the four Lakeshores, and I’m glad we did. Indiana Dunes was our first Lakeshore stop and we were pleasantly surprised at how much there was to see both culturally (the early settlement communities) and naturally ... read more

What a fantastic day we had! We left Fargo and headed northeast towards the Itasca State Park. This park is home to the Mississippi Headwater. We arrived at the headwaters and decided we had to walk across. What a treat that was. My kids were thrilled. They had walked across the Missouri River Headwater and now the Mississippi. We explained that last year they crossed the Mississippi when it was a large river and now they see it as a small current. They were dually impressed. Once we left the headwater state park we headed east towards Duluth, MN. It was very beautiful and we enjoyed the back road scenery. We pulled over at a small turnout to let my dad and Theo get some water and stretch and the bugs were HUGE! I have never ... read more