Scoring the Last Room on Isle Royale

I typically only plan my travel a week in advance. I’ve found if I book things too far in advance, my plans change and I end up throwing money at cancellation fees. But there was one National Park that I really wanted to visit but required serious advanced planning. When I finally sat down to look into it in early May, it by all accounts should have been too late.

Isle Royale National Park in Michigan is the least visited National Park in the lower 48 and the third least visited overall. This is largely due to the fact that it is incredibly isolated, accessible only by boat and seaplane. Yet, despite being the hardest to reach, it boasts the highest percentage of return visitors in the entire park system. While most people backpack across the wilderness, there is a single lodge on the island with just 60 rooms. Reservations open a year in advance, and slots vanish almost instantly.

So, looking for a room in May for a summer trip was a total long shot. But it didn't hurt to check.

And as luck would have it, there was one reservation left for the entire year. July 3-5. Someone had clearly just canceled their holiday weekend plans, and the universe handed the keys right to me.

And that is how, on July 3rd, I found myself strapped into the co-pilot seat of a seaplane, watching the mainland fade away.

My fellow passengers on the seaplane were a couple on their honeymoon and one of the park’s EMTs.

Isle Royale National park was established in 1940 and is made up of the island itself as well as 400 smaller surrounding islands. There are zero roads here. In fact, wheeled vehicles of any kind (aside from wheelchairs) are strictly banned. It is pure, untouched wilderness.

I realized within an hour of landing that this was going to easily rank among my favorite National Parks. Having never spent time in this specific region of the country, I was completely blindsided by the lushness of the forests and the impossibly deep, vibrant blue of Lake Superior. Isle Royale serves up these views in spades.

As soon as I checked into my room, I immediately tested my luck again and tried to book a sunset boat cruise for that evening. Unbelievably, I snagged the very last ticket. (That makes two last-minute sunset cruises in a month—I am officially riding a lucky streak!).

Before the sun dipped below the horizon, the boat dropped us off at Raspberry Island near Rock Harbor where I was staying. A quick, scenic one-mile hike took us through ancient bogs, thick boreal forests, and rugged, rocky shorelines. Afterward, we boated north just in time to watch a spectacular sunset put on a show over the water.

This is one of the best pictures I’ve ever taken

I spent the next two days hiking trails close to Rock Harbor and mastering the art of doing nothing. The view from my room was of Lake Superior and sitting in front of it to drink my coffee every morning was the peace I needed in my life. The wildlife was also good to me: I saw a moose from afar on one of the hikes and two snowshoe hares up close. 

By the time the seaplane buzzed back to the dock to take me back to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, my time on the island felt entirely too short. I’m already plotting how and when I can make it back.

One of my favorite parts of this six-month journey has been my deliberate lack of research. I rarely look up photos of what to expect scenery-wise before I arrive somewhere new. Because of that, I am constantly overwhelmed and blown away by the beauty of these places.

It’s impossible to truly rank the destinations I’ve seen since they all hold their own unique magic, but Isle Royale has officially claimed a very permanent, very high place in my heart.