Monday, October 10, 2022

Apostle Islands and Minnesota's North Shore (Lake Superior)

We had never been to Minnesota or Wisconsin and so enjoyed being introduced to both when we took a short trip to the area with the primary objective of visiting Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

Although we have visited several national parks and national monuments in the United States, this was our first visit to a national lakeshore.

The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore features "21 islands and 12 miles of mainland coast."

We visited the Apostle Islands in the first week of October 2022, but they are well-known as a winter destination due to the sea caves becoming ice caves.

Other blog posts will cover more specific details regarding Apostle Islands, but I wanted to include some description and photographs in this overview post because the Apostle Islands were our primary motivation for this trip.

We chose to go to Apostle Islands in October to avoid summer crowds and that paid off for the most part as the Apostle Islands and Bayfield were relatively quiet during our few days there.

Bayfield got a little more crowded during the day from day-trippers visiting, but it was quiet and peaceful in the mornings and evenings.

To get the Bayfield and the Apostle Islands, we flew into and out of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) on direct and relatively easy Delta flights from Denver International Airport (DEN).

We left on the Saturday morning of Bayfield's Apple Festival. That was lucky (we hadn't planned it) timing because we got a taste of the Bayfield Apple Festival but then left as the crowds were arriving.

To break up our drives between Minneapolis and Bayfield, we stayed a night in Duluth on either end of the trip and it was nice to learn that Duluth had more to offer than we realized.

We also were able to take a day trip to some of the better known attractions along Minnesota's North Shore and enjoyed these beautiful vistas of Lake Superior.

The first week of October turned out to be a fantastic time to visit the Lake Superior area of Wisconsin and Minnesota. After visiting Bayfield and Madeline Island in early October, it was easy to see why that area is featured in 23 Top Places to See Fall Foliage in the U.S.

Future blog posts will be linked to from here with more details and photographs related to our short trip to Wisconsin's Apostle Islands and Minnesota's Duluth and Lake Superior North Shore.

1Madeline Island is one of the Apostle Islands but is not technically part of the national lakeshore.

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