Bayfield County

The county in brief

A traveler's read on Bayfield County

Twenty-one of the 22 Apostle Islands sit inside Apostle Islands National Lakeshore — the 22nd, Madeline Island (the largest of the chain at 14,090 acres), is privately settled and reached by the Madeline Island Ferry Line's year-round car ferry from Bayfield town. APIS is the largest national lakeshore by land area in the entire NPS system (69,372 acres including submerged lands per NPS Foundation Document), and the Devils Island sea caves, Sand Island sea caves, and Squaw Bay (Meyers Beach) mainland sea caves form the signature Lake Superior kayaking destination cited by Outside, Backpacker, and Sierra Club magazines as the premier US Great Lakes paddling experience. Bayfield County's 1,478 sq mi wrap the entire mainland NLS approach via WI-13, the Bayfield Peninsula, and the western half of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest — the largest national forest in the Eastern Region by acreage at 1.5 million acres per USDA Forest Service Region 9 data.

WI-13 from Ashland through Bayfield to Cornucopia is signed as the Lake Superior Scenic Byway and is the canonical RV touring route, with the 2-lane road accommodating rigs to 45 ft and frequent waterfront pullouts. Big Bay State Park on Madeline Island accepts rigs to 40 ft with no hookups on 60 sites — the ferry crossing limits rig length to 40 ft total combined towing length per Madeline Island Ferry Line vehicle rate schedule 2024, with $80-100 one-way pricing for an RV depending on length. Apostle Islands NLS itself has no road access to the islands and no developed RV campground; backcountry tent camping is permitted on 18 of the 21 NPS-managed islands by reservation through recreation.gov. Bayfield town (population 487) is the practical resupply anchor with the only grocery and propane within 30 miles. The 2014 polar-vortex winter froze Lake Superior solid enough that the ice-cave hiking access to the Squaw Bay sea caves drew 138,000 visitors over 11 weeks per NPS counts — a once-a-decade event the NPS will not promote and cannot guarantee.