Up North - July 2017 - Days 3 & 4

July 3, 2017 (Monday)

Mike and I headed out early to head back to the Visitor Center that was closed the previous day.  The Visitor Center was really good – one of the best we have been to.  There was a video (about 20 minutes) and two floors of displays to look at.  We managed to get through the building and watch the video in about an hour.

Back at the campground we had a quick lunch and packed up the camper. Our next destination was Indian Point Campground in Duluth, MN.  We hung out at the campground for the evening were we also got a chance to check out the Western Waterfront Trail.

July 4, 2017 (Tuesday)

Apostle Island Boat that did make the tour

Apostle Islands National Lakeshore here we come…or maybe not. Our first stop for the day was Bayfield to get our tickets for the Apostle Islands National Park Grand Tour boat ride (about $45/adult).  We found parking (free) on a side street a few blocks from the ticket building.  Restrooms were located about a block away from the ticket building. There were two boats going out for the 3.25 hour long tour. The guy scanning the tickets told us we could get on either boat, but that one boat had more comfortable seats that the other so we picked that one. BIG MISTAKE!  We were almost out to the first National Park Island – Basswood and the transmission on one of the motors went out. The boat limped back to shore and we were refunded our money since there was not a time that worked well for us available.

Meyers Beach

Since we did not get to see the island via the boat we checked out the Bayfield Visitor Center, where there was a 20-minute video. The visitor center was quite small and did not offer a lot of displays. The ranger on staff did make suggestions of other places we could visit.

We had lunch at a place in Bayfield called Maggies before heading to the Little Sand Bay Visitor Center. The restaurant was a cute little place that was all decked out in Flamingos! The food was pretty good, but the service was quite slow. 

The beach at Little Sand Bay was really small and again the visitor center was really small. We did not spend much time there since there was not really much to do.  The visitor center told us there was more to do at Meyers Beach. Once we arrived at Meyers Beach ($5 parking fee) we hit the trail! The trail was boardwalk for the first portion (0.7 miles) and then it turned into a mostly dirt trail.  There were a lot of gorgeous lake views from the trail. We also got to see a bunch of kayakers! The full trail goes 4.5 miles (one way), but we only went to where we could see some of the sea cave overlooks (about 2 miles from the trailhead). So pretty!

Amnicon Falls State Park

Leaving Meyers Beach we headed back towards the campground. We did make a stop in Cornucopia  (Wisconsin’s northern most Post Office location is located here) for some ice cream at Siskiwit Bay Coffee & Crsts!  Yum!

While we were out we decided to check out Amnicon Falls State Park, where as the name implies we were able to view some waterfalls! There was a fee to park – the fee depends on how long you want to stay. There were some bridges and trails around the falls.

Leaving the State Park we decided to check out the nearby lighthouse Superior Entry Lighthouse.  There was a boardwalk out to the lighthouse. After the fact we discovered there was another lighthouses we could have visited, like the Minnesota Point.

Superior Entry Lighthouse

Duluth has a huge 4^th of July festival and boasts as the biggest firework display in the state of Minnesota.  There were lots of fireworks going off all around us.