Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Here's where the windshield vistas become worthy of Ansel Adams—the modest Bayfield
County mosaic of orchards, multihued patches of unidentified crop, enormous rolls of hay,
dilapidated one-eyed shotgun shacks weathering by the side of the road, or even an aban-
doned Chevy truck rusting in the cattails.
Highway 13
eases out of Bayfield and whips
along the coastline, coming out almost as far west as Superior—about 80 miles and totally
worththeeffort.ThesepartsweresettledpredominantlybyFinnishandotherScandinavian
immigrants pushing west out of Michigan's Upper Peninsula around the middle of the 19th
century.TheywouldeventuallyspreadthroughtheoredocksandshipyardsofSuperiorand
into the mines of the Mesabi and Vermilion Iron Ranges in Minnesota. A number of their
homesteads can still be seen poking through the weeds along the route.
West of Red Cliff and the mainland unit of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, lots
oftinysideroadspoketheirwaynorthfromWIS13,leadingtoassortedpointsandpromon-
tories. Some end at established picnic areas near beaches, others offer miles of gravel just
to reach an overrated boat landing.
Cornucopia is as far north as you can go on mainland Wisconsin.
