Apr 23, 20233 min read

Isle Royale - A Superior Wilderness

Isle Royal National Park (known as Minong to the native Ojibwe) is an archipelago consisting of 132,018 acres of land made up by one large island surrounded by over 450 smaller ones. It is the largest island in the largest freshwater lake in the world. Isle Royale also happens to be the very first national park we visited on our journey of having visited over 25 parks across the United States as of this post. We wanted to write about it today because today is the discovery theme of #NationalParkWeek! We'll save the details of the trip for a different post as this one will focus on the uniqueness of this amazing National Park.

Although there are a few ways to get to the island we opted for the 6 hour boat ride from Houghton, MI to Rock Harbor aboard the Ranger III. During the 6 hour ride the NPS offers different programs and presentations that highlight the natural and cultural history of Isle Royale National Park. We were fortunate enough to be on the same trip as some scientists conducting various studies on the island so we were able to learn more from them. Learning about the uniqueness of this park started immediately and hasn't ended yet!

The ecosystem of Isle Royale is so unique that in 1980 it was designated as an International Biosphere Reserve. The islands have 18 mammal species that include Red Foxes, Beavers, Otters, Moose, and Wolves. Isle Royale's landscape is also conducive to various amphibians all over the archipelago, including a species of Boreal Chorus Frogs that is unique to any in the rest of the world. Pictured here is one of many beaver lodges that you can see along the 165 miles of hiking trails on the island.

Predator Prey Study

Isle Royale is also home to the longest predator - prey study in the world. This study has mainly focused on the relationship of the moose and wolves of Isle Royale and has continuously been studied and documented since 1958. Wolves have been the single apex predator on the island since the late 1940s, and because of the remoteness of the islands it has raised many questions over the decades. In addition to moose, the wolves do hunt and kill beaver as well, but no other large mammals make the trip to Isle Royale. How do they get there? Moose are very powerful swimmers and can make the journey through the frigid waters of Lake Superior, but they have inhabited the island since the early 1900s. Their population has fluctuated over the years from as low as 500 to as high as 2,400. The only other way for animals to get to Isle Royale is to cross the "ice bridge" between Isle Royale and the area of Grand Portage, MN and/or parts of where the Ontario province meets Minnesota. There is no guarantee of an ice bridge, and since 1994 the formation of them have dramatically decreased. The picture above is from a presentation given at Daisy Farm campground, one of the 36 campgrounds along the trails on Isle Royale. We were hiking through when Rolf Peterson, a wildlife ecologist who leads the wolf/moose study, was scheduled to talk to the campers.

A young bull moose we encountered along the Greenstone Ridge Trail

Isle Royale has created such a unique biosphere that scientists continue to venture there annually to conduct studies of the mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, insects, geology, plants and much more. Below are links to the various studies conducted on the island.

Some additional pictures of our backpacking trip