Home › Parks & Public Lands › National Parks
Isle Royale National Park
Roadless Lake Superior island famed for its wolves and moose
No roads, no cars and no winter visitors. Isle Royale, a 45-mile (72 km) ribbon of rock and boreal forest in the northwest corner of Lake Superior, can be reached only by ferry, seaplane or private boat, and the park closes entirely each winter. Established on April 3, 1940, the park spans about 894 square miles (2,314 km²), roughly three quarters of it open water surrounding the main island and some 400 smaller islands. Most of the land is designated wilderness, crossed by the 40-mile (64 km) Greenstone Ridge Trail.
Isle Royale is best known as a natural laboratory. Moose reached the island in the early 1900s, and wolves followed around 1949, likely crossing an ice bridge from Ontario. Scientists began tracking the two species in 1958, and the effort has become the longest continuous study of a predator and its prey anywhere. After inbreeding nearly wiped out the wolves, the Park Service relocated new wolves to the island in 2018 and 2019. The Ojibwe call the island Minong, and ancient copper pits show people mined here thousands of years ago.