Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
they look. Explorers and hikers have been dizzyingly lost in a gorge overnight. If you want
to hack your own trail, be prepared to sleep with the bears.
Stockton Island
Stockton Island and its twin, Presque Isle, make up the largest island in the National
Lakeshore.Atjustmorethan10,000acres,itiseasilythemostdevelopedandhighlyvisited
island; halfofthecamping inthearchipelago isdonehere.Historically ithasalways drawn
thelargestcrowds,beginning3,000yearsagowithNativeAmericansandendingwithpost-
Civil War logging and fish camps and a sandstone quarry operation. For a spell, plans to
establish ranches were also considered, giving an indication as to its size. Stockton Is-
land features a beach, 15 miles of hiking, 21 campsites (primitive sites on the north side
at an early-20th-century logging camp), a ranger station, and one of the superlative sights
in the chain—the
Stockton Island Tombolo State Natural Area.
(
Tombolo
is Italian for
“mound,” but really translates as “overgrown sandbar.”) A visitors center, open when it can
be, is also on the island. As a protected area, it provides refuge for two threatened sedge
species and the English sundew, all thriving in a diverse 680-acre ecosystem. The highest
concentration of black bears in the United States is found on Stockton Island: around three
dozen.
