-By Warner Todd Huston
Due to this harsh winter freeze, Wisconsin tourists are getting a rare chance to visit the Lake Superior ice caves on foot as the Great Lake is frozen over enough for foot traffic to the isolated island caves.
The famed ice caves are located in the western section of the Mainland Unit of Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Bayfield County and are normally only accessible by boat. But this winter has opened the site up for foot traffic for the first time in five years.
The caves were carved by the constant beating of the lake’s waves upon the sandstone shoreline and in winter become encrusted with columns of ice in stalactite-like formations revealing a beautiful and alien-looking landscape that is a favorite of tourists.
Thus far, over 35,000 sight-seers have made the mile-long trek across the ice to view the ice caves and county officials expect thousands more before the spring thaw begins melting the thick ice bridge that has formed across the lake.
“We have never had this number of people coming,” said Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Julie Van Stappen. “It has been a bit overwhelming, but it has been great for the local community, and they are gorgeous.”
Bayfield County locals feel that tourism is way up and maybe not just because of this winter’s deep freeze. Village Inn owner Cheryl O’Bryon thinks that the ice caves have become the destination of tourists because of the increased incidents of earlier tourists posting the photos of the beautiful caves on social media.
Whatever the cause of the glut of visitors, the economic boom it has brought the county has been a welcome phenomenon.
Officials do caution hikers about the dangers of hiking across the ice, though. Officials warn that lake ice is unpredictable and walking across it is always a risk despite the deep freeze.
“Travel on Lake Superior can be dangerous any time of the year,” the park’s website warns. “Traveling across the ice demands extra attention to personal safety. Because of the unpredictability of lake ice, traveling across it is never completely safe. Before heading out, visitors must understand all of the risks involved, and the physical demands required for hiking out to the caves.”
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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