Minnesota, Part 4 - Moose-less in Isle Royale National Park [240622]

Today we'd be making what is probably our shortest visit to a National Park ever:  a trip to Isle Royale National Park.  As the name implies, Isle Royale is an island out in Lake Superior just south of the Canadian border and can only be reached by boat.  The only non-overnight boat available only provides 3.5 hours on the island (with a 3 hour round trip to get there and back) so we didn't have time to do very much while there.

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We were up at 6:30 Saturday morning to get ready and drive out to the dock to catch our 8:30 boat out to Isle Royale National Park.  Boarding started at 8:15 and was in "reservation order" so were were in the middle of the pack and got one of the last seats in the crowded cabin (with side seating benches).  

The 1.5 hour ride out to the island was smooth, and we were able to walk out on deck to take photos and videos when desired.

Along the way we saw Canada in the far off distance on one side...

...and the Rock of Ages Lighthouse on the other (we didn't know it at the time, but the return boat would get us much closer to the lighthouse later).

As we wound our way between some of the smaller islands toward our dock, we passed by the shipwreck of the SS America.  On some days you supposedly can see parts of the ship below the water - and some of the other passengers claim to have seen something as we passed by - but we personally saw nothing but water (other than the marker buoys).

Upon arrival we received a group welcome / orientation from one of the (volunteer) rangers, Ginger.  Then Christine took a picture by the Windigo sign, which is surrounded by a plethora of shed moose antlers to get you excited about all the moose you were about to see.  Or not.

On our way to the Visitor Center to look around, we passed by signs describing the history of the area (although no one was able to adequately explain why "Windigo" was named after the "Wendigo Mining Company", but is spelled differently) and the SS America.

We decided not to do the 3.7 mile hike out to Grace Creek Overlook, because the photos online from there frankly didn't look that exciting.  Instead we opted for the hour long ranger-led "hike" on the Nature Trail instead, which ended up being led by Ranger Ginger again.  She warned us at the start that we weren't likely to see any moose on the hike, since the Nature Trail runs so close to the Visitor Center.  Unfortunately, the theme of the hike was "decomposition", which wasn't a particularly interesting topic (and didn't cover anything that we didn't already know), and the pace of the "hike" was incredibly slow by our standards.  We did get to see some interesting fungi along the way, though.

By the time the hike was over, the Visitor Center was closed for lunch (they take a really long lunch break on the island!) so we had our own lunch down by the dock.

Apparently, Monarch Butterflies find their way out to Isle Royale as well!

When the Visitor Center finally re-opened, we went inside to inquire about the best place to go to look for moose.  Some folks had reportedly seen one "in a clearing somewhere along the trail to Feltdmann Lake" earlier in the day.  Now:  the "trail to Feltdmann Lake" is 8 miles long (each way) and by this time we only had 40 minutes left before we had to be back on the dock to catch our return boat, so the chances of finding said moose were "slim to none" - but we decided we'd walk as quickly as we could for 20 minutes out on the trail to see what we could see, and then turn around and come back.  You can kind of guess from the title of the post how successful we were.

Although we were ultimately moose-less, the walk was pretty...

...and we got this photo of a Pink Lady's Slipper (which is related to, but not quite, the state flower of Minnesota:  the Showy Lady's Slipper, which is pink and white).

Then it was time to say "good-bye" to Isle Royale.  For the ride home, we sat in the center of the rear deck.

As mentioned earlier, the boat passed much closer to the Rock of Ages Lighthouse on the return trip, and slowed so that we could take photos.

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Back at camp later that afternoon, we sprayed the dinette and sliding door cassette shades, as well as the galley window screen, with the permethrin spray.  Unfortunately there are no photos of the process, since spraying the shades (in-place) was considerably more involved than spraying the (removable) ceiling vent screen the day before had been:  Christine was on the inside of the coach taping old maps up on the inside behind the screens to keep the spray-through from getting into the coach, and watching for drips as Tom sprayed the permethrin from the outside in.  We got the job done, though, and left the windows and screens open for a few hours so they could dry, while we showered, had dinner, and did laundry.

We had earned another sticker for our National Parks water bottle today.  Tomorrow, we'd be leaving the GPLCMRC to explore a little further north, before turning around again so we don't end up in Canada. 😉