| Isle Royale is one of the lower 48's least-visited parks. It's also harder to get to than just about any other in the lower 48 since you have to drive to a fairly remote town and then take a 3-6 hour boat ride. Your reward is a classic Great North Woods wilderness experience. Thinking about your visit If you don't have your own boat, you have basically three options, in ascending level of difficulty: a day boat trip from Grand Portage MN to Windigo, an overnight stay at the campgrounds in Windigo or Rock Harbor or the lodge in Rock Harbor, or backpacking (or canoeing or kayaking) from a half-dozen entry points. Almost the whole park is wilderness, so I really recommend getting out and enjoying it. For a day trip, get "Superior Wilderness" above and rely on the National Park Service map. Everyone else should get "Foot Trails and Water Routes" and the Trails Illustrated map. (You might also want "Superior Wilderness.") 'Isle Royale National Park: Foot Trails & Water Routes' 'Superior Wilderness: Isle Royale National Park' 'Trails Illustrated - National Parks Map-Isle Royale - Nat'l Parks (Trails Illustrated Topo Maps)' Isle Royale is a World Heritage Site. Its wolf and moose populations, and the relationships between them, are a big part of the reason. If wolves interest you, there are excellent books by the two leaders of the four-decade-long wolf-moose study, Durward Allen and Rolf Peterson. Allen's book is more detailed (and longer) but probably too "academic" for some tastes. Peterson has written many things on the wolves, his most recent (listed below) is a great popular introduction to the wolves and to Isle Royale, with great pictures. I'd recommend starting with Peterson. 'The Wolves of Isle Royale: A Broken Balance' 'Wolves of Minong: Isle Royal's Wild Community (Ann Arbor Paperbacks)' Wherever there are wolves, you'll often find ravens. Unfortunately, no one seems to write on "the ravens of Isle Royale," but they do write about ravens. Bernd Heinrich is perhaps the best, and I recommend his "Mind of the Raven" to learn about these intelligent birds. 'Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds' Heinrich has also written a great book on trees. It's about trees in Maine, but I read it in camp on Isle Royale and it helped me make sense of the forest around me. 'The Trees in My Forest' For a fun, fictional introduction to Isle Royale, try Nevada Barr's murder-mystery. She once worked for the park service on the island and certainly knows the place. The lead character, Anna Pigeon, complains a fair amount about the weather -- which is unpredictable at any time of the year. 'A Superior Death (Anna Pigeon Mysteries (Paperback))' Final Thoughts If you've read this far, I hope this was useful. Rate this page. |