The pontoons of our seaplane settled onto Lake Superior with a gentle, satisfying splash. With too little planning and a lot of effort, our team of three arrived on the southwestern shore of the third least-visited national park in the United States, Isle Royale. Though the other two—Gates of Arctic and American Samoa—are just as remote, this site, on the largest freshwater lake in the world, Lake Superior, is technically more accessible.

Isle Royale National Park is only open to the public from mid-April through mid-October, due to the frigid temperatures (10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit) through the winter months. Despite the logistical challenges of getting there, if you have a solid plan, it is a national park experience unlike any other. And in a world of overtourism, Isle Royale’s barrier to entry and seasonal access is its greatest selling point.

I’m here as part of a community engagement project, sponsored by the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation. My group and I are to here to bring more attention to Isle Royale. I’ve lived in the Midwest for more than 30 years, and even I had never been there before. With my fellow travelers, Alice Jasper and Lorena Aguayo-Márquez, I plotted a short trip to scout the location, only to realize exactly why it is so hard to get to. Due to a logistical nightmare of getting there on short notice late in the summer season, we could just stay there for one day. But despite the headaches, it was worth the trek.

Isle Royale, the Most Accessible Least-Visited National Park

Isle Royale was established as our 26th national park in 1940. The ancestral home of the Ojibwe People for over 4,000 years, it is still known as Minong, or the Good Place. A prized location for fishing and hunting, it was also a site for the mining copper to make tools, ornaments, and other valued items. For millennia, Minong was part of a vast trade network across North America. But even then, the island was only accessible by canoe. Though there have been recorded cases of humans crossing the frozen lake in winter, that method is far too dangerous.

Pre-sunrise at Rock Harbor, Isle Royal National Park. (Photo: Getty)

Located on Lake Superior off the shores of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, Isle Royale is the high point of a Midcontinent Rift. More than a billion years ago, this tectonic crest rose up as the Earth’s crust settled into place. Flowing lava formed a series of ridges and valleys that now run the length of the island from northwest to southeast. Layers of volcanic rock were scoured away with the advancement and receding of glaciers that created the lake during the last Ice Age. With an abundance of fresh water, the island features a dense boreal forest, populated by wolves, moose, foxes, snowshoe hares, and beavers. After more than 10,000 years, the topography of this region is marked with steep climbs and rugged terrain that today make it a much-desired location for backpacking.