Sea Caves and Waterfalls in Wisconsin

 

We pulled up camp on Sunday morning after a monsoon hit the Porcupine Mountain State Park.  The skies cleared just long enough for us to pack up and head 25 miles west to the other side of the park to the Presque Isle area that is home to three beautiful waterfalls that run down the river into Lake Superior.  We hiked the three mile trail that traverses both sides of the river for breathtaking views of the waterfalls.  We finished up the hike in time for a quick picnic before the skies opened up again and it rained all the way to our next campsite at Apostle Island National Lakeshore.

The waterfalls are the main attraction at the Presque Isle area but we thought the trees were pretty amazing too.  This is a very unique area of northern Michigan as the trees have never been harvested as the state opted to keep the state park untouched.  As a result, the trees are huge – kind of reminded us of the trees at Sequoia National Park.

Next stop was Apostle Islands National Lakeshore which is the least visited national park in the country because the majority of the park is accessible only by boat.  It consists of 22 islands that are located in Lake Superior just off the Bayfield peninsula in northern Wisconsin.  We had planned to kayak around to the islands until we arrived to temperatures in the 50’s and the park ranger informed us that the water temperature had just reached 40 degrees.  It is not recommended to kayak without full body wetsuits and an enclosed dry kayak – neither of which us Floridians had.  So we opted to see the islands from the comfort of the Apostle Islands Cruises.  Although the temperatures were cool, it was a beautiful sunny day for the cruise that originated in the picturesque town of Bayfield Wisconsin.

 

The highlights of the cruise was the view of the sea caves and the various lighthouses.

And of course a visit to Wisconsin would not be complete without a stop at the local pub for some cheese curds!

After viewing the sea caves on the cruise from the water, we took the advice of some locals and decided to take the hike above the sea caves to view them from up above and WOW what a hike it was!   Treacherous but well worth it and again we lucked out with fantastic weather.

And yes that was about a 25 foot boat driving up into the caves!  Headed west now to Duluth Minnesota!