Isle Royale Forums

My wife and I are looking to do and end to end trip this year and would like to take advantage of the longer Memeorial Day weekend. I am interested in what the weather is usually like that time of year. I was initially thinking the second week of June but might bump it up a little. I am trying to avoid bugs as much as possible. It looks like the seaplane is the only option which is fine. We will be doing an end to end on either the Minong or Greenstone in probably 5 nights. Correct me if I am wrong but I think all the stores are open that weekend.

Memorial Day is early-mid spring, which means wildly varying weather. Sunny with a high of 70 one day, then a 30 degree night and an inch of snow the next day. Ice on ponds and heat on the ridges. It's wonderful. Pack for everything.

There will still be freezing nights, so bugs are unlikely to be a problem, unless spring comes unusually early and stays warm.

Last year the Rock Harbor store opened 5/28 and the Windigo store 6/8. Check here https://www.nps.gov/isro/greenstone-newspaper.htm for the 2022 Greenstone when it comes out--it will have this summer's dates. Note that they may be periodically open with limited inventory before that as they get some supplies in--that happened to me in Windigo the 1st week of June, but with no set hours, just word of mouth around the campground.

As dcclark says, it's a great time to go.

As for bugs around Memorial Day weekend, I spent time at Rock Harbor three or four years ago the week following Memorial Day, and hiked the Greenstone up to Mt. Franklin one afternoon. Absolutely no bugs anywhere along the Lake Superior shore (too cool), but I did find both mosquitoes and black flies once I got up on top of the Greenstone, where it was warmer. Not major amounts, but enough to be annoying if I stood in one place too long. I leaned to keep moving.

You will be avoiding bugs if you go on Memorial day weekend or the first week of June. As someone pointed out, it will be 70s during the day, and 30s at night. The time of year you are choosing is my favorite time of year to go to Isle Royale for both those reasons (I can warm up at night no problem!)

As for the stores, check the Greenstone newspaper @Ingo linked above. You can also call the store...sometimes they will be open early in Windigo with a very small stash of stuff.

One other bit of advice: the Minong and Greenstone are two completely different trails. The Minong is the hardest trail on the island, while the Greenstone is the easiest. Keep that in mind when planning.

I'm with fonixmonkee on it being the best time to go---provided you're prepared for varieties of weather. Not only are the bugs generally suppressed, so are the leaves, which means that you can see more!

torpified wrote: ↑Mon Feb 14, 2022 7:30 am Not only are the bugs generally suppressed, so are the leaves, which means that you can see more!

And the people are "suppressed" too