We moved to Washburn, WI, a short 77 miles and all-around pleasant trip. We arrived early since the sites were first come-first served at Thompson's West End Park. There was plenty of room and we settled into the very nice city park. Their main street through town was under construction so we did not have a chance to explore Washburn but we kept busy in Bayfield about 13 miles to the north. The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Headquarters in Bayfield was not yet open for the season. Bayfield was very "walkable" with many quaint shops and a marina full of sailboats. It was easy to imagine the crowds of tourists that must be here later in the summer.
We enjoyed perusing the few open shops. Most restaurants, museums, and shops won't open for the season until the end of May.
I never spent much time thinking about a "bucket list" of must-see sights but the Apostle Islands would have been on it if I had. Now in our 12th year of traveling, we finally planned on seeing them on a boat tour out of Bayfield, WI. We opted for the "Grand Tour" shown below in red. It was a 55-mile cruise lasting around two and a half hours.
The "Grand Tour" at 1:15 was the only tour offered this early in the season.
Our boat was the Archipelago that, if I remember correctly, could hold 140 passengers and only had about 45 booked for our tour so it had plenty of room to move around.
As we passed Basswood Island we saw the remains of the brownstone operation that was abandoned many years ago without even shipping the last of the stone blocks that had been quarried.
We saw many Bald Eagles perched in the trees and a couple exhibiting their aerial acrobatic skills.
Most of the islands had a fish camp where crews of men stayed throughout the year processing the catch and maintaining their fishing nets. Only one camp remained. It has been restored and is staffed for tours in the summers.
The most interesting island and the one most people have probably seen in pictures was Devil's Island. The strong winds on Lake Superior created a lot of wave action that, with the cold winters, sculpted the sandstone into the beautiful caves along the shoreline.
Imagine how it must feel to kayak through some of these caves.
On the way back to Bayfield we passed one more lighthouse on Strawberry Island. This facility was restored and maintained by the National Park Service. Other cruise options specifically visit and tour the lighthouses on the islands.
While I spent most of my time on the upper deck, the cold wind required that I go below to thaw out a few times as we traversed the channel between islands. I think it was better to brave the late spring cold than fight the crowd in the warmer summer months. There are four National Lakeshores established including the Apostle Islands, Pictured Rocks, Sleeping Bear Dunes, and Indiana Dunes (which was upgraded to National Park status) and we have now visited all of them.
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