Ice Caves - Old news but still drawing crowds!

I mentioned Ice Caves in a previous blog and said I'd write more about them later.  And later is now.

Ice Caves - near Cornucopia, Wisconsin

For the last six weeks, we have been enjoying a front row seat on what might be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence here in Bayfield County.  It's been REALLY cold for a REALLY REALLY long time, cold enough for Lake Superior to nearly freeze over.  And that now allows walking access to an area of sandstone caves carved into the south shore of Lake Superior between Cornucopia and Bayfield that, through social media and just-plain-media, have become the famous Ice Caves, or officially the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Mainland Sea Caves. The last time they have been accessible was 5 years ago, and who knows when we would have a winter like this again.  The other time of year when people can see them is by kayak in the summer or a boat drive-by.

THOUSANDS of people have come to walk to the ice caves in the last 6 weeks.  One report we've heard said that more people have come here to the ice caves in January and February than usually come over the course of the WHOLE summer!  And this has been great for businesses in our area, and of course for our little "B&B in the snow."  Last weekend the big snowstorm of 12 or more inches of snow closed down the ice caves for a day, but they opened up again on Saturday to several more thousand people.

We went to see them on one of the first weekends and so we avoided the biggest crowds of cars and people.  At that time cars were parked out on the highway in more than a mile in either direction, and then people had to walk the half mile into the park, and then another mile to where the caves actually begin.  Here's a new map I just found:

 

And, finally, I love this picture that I took from an NBC news story about the caves.  While I was walking to the caves that day, following behind other people like in this picture, it felt almost like being on a spiritual trek, except it was REALLY REALLY cold!  So maybe we were like penguins...or lemmings...