This is the account of our first visit to a state park during our week-long stay in Door County, June 4 through June 9, 2023.
1) Rock Island
2) Peninsula
3) Whitefish Dunes
4) Newport
Getting to Rock Island State Park takes a little more effort and planning than what is needed for other Wisconsin state parks.
As the park is an island (and the entire island is the park), you have to cross the waters of what is probably technically Lake Michigan. (Though you might be crossing the Bay of Green Bay – an arm of Lake Michigan…so I dunno for sure.) And that water is between Washington Island and the park.
As you should expect, you have to first cross Lake Michigan / Green Bay to get from the mainland of Door County to Washington Island.
There is a car ferry that runs every 45 or 60 minutes (depending on the season) between the mainland and Washington Island. There is a foot ferry (i.e., no cars, as none are allowed on Rock Island) that runs periodically between Washington and Rock islands.
Unless you plan to camp on Rock Island, you probably should plan your day trip as we did. We took an early ferry to Washington Island so we could get to Rock Island early in the day, hike there, and make it back before the last ferry left for the mainland.
You can buy all four tickets needed in one shot in Northport before getting on the first boat. Just make sure to hold on to the tickets all day. If you accidentally let them blow into the water, they will issue you replacements without an additional fee. (Just sayin’.)
As you leave Northport passing through two breakwaters, you can see Plum Island in the distance. Plum Island lies between Washington and Rock, and until fairly recently, the general public wasn’t allowed to go there. Technically you can now, but there are no ferries that travel there. You’d have to make your own private arrangements.
Leaving Northport
Besides the expected seagulls, there are quite a few of these black cormorants. There are also unexpected (to me) pelicans, which I’ll show you elsewhere.
Cars are packed in tightly on the ship, but the crew makes sure you can get out of your car if you want to. We did go to the upper deck on the outbound trip. We were one of the first to drive onto the boat.
The foot ferry to Rock Island is, as you may have guessed, a much smaller boat. You also take a much shorter voyage aboard that boat than on the car ferry.
Landing on Rock Island
One of the main buildings on Rock Island is the boathouse. It’s really the first thing you see as you make your approach.
The sheltered watery area underneath isn’t used as it once was.
The main entrance (these days) is on the north side of the building.
Inside is a treasure trove of information and antiques. Unfortunately, in my humble opinion, much of it is nearly hidden from view. The whole interior could use the expertise of an interior decorator or maybe someone familiar with feng shui.
There is this awesome fireplace with Scandinavian runes carved into it.
Above the fireplace is a balcony from which you get this view of the main floor.
I’m not sure if this chandelier is as old as some of the other artifacts, but it’s still pretty cool. I’d love to know its history.
Nearly hidden in a side room, I found this 1930 envelope that was of special interest to me as a stamp collector.
Protected behind rope barricades was this ancient furniture. The chair shows Odin and his brothers.
That chair is at the far end of this table.
There were several other similar pieces, including another table, chairs, and a large desk. Sadly, it was difficult to get a good look at most of the items because of the way they were arranged behind the ropes. Again, calling all interior decorators!
Just outside the building on a stone balcony was this interesting sign. I hope this never was a serious problem. The water below wasn’t very deep.
Near the boathouse is this plaque about shipwrecks. Note the good condition of this display. Most others on the island are in need of repair or replacement, as you’ll see.
From the Boathouse to the Lighthouse
The other main building to visit on Rock Island is the lighthouse about 1.25 miles north of the boathouse.
On the way is this large urn. Why is it there? No idea. Besides some of the plaques being in sad shape, there are other features like this one that have no explanation at all.
Another example is this pagoda-style building has a large, but empty, display at one end.
I think this is the building called the Ranger Residence on the map. It may be, but it doesn’t look inhabited.
In the same area is this too-shiny plaque entitled “The Garden”. Sorry, but I didn’t try to decipher the text which was too bright to read easily. (It didn’t used to be that way.)
And also in the same area was this flagpole that someone wanted placed here.
Near that, in the middle of an unmanicured area was this plaque. It felt misplaced.
Further along the trail to the lighthouse, we came upon this structure. Was your first thought, “It’s a gallows,” too?
It’s actually what’s left of a large gate that was the entrance to a Japanese garden that early (wealthy) resident, Chester Thordarson, once had on the island. (See the pagoda above.) Why is there no plaque describing what this is?
At the north end of this stretch of the Thordarson Trail Loop you find the lighthouse.
We took the brief tour of the building. In one of the rooms I spotted this cool phonograph.
I went all the way to the top where the actual light is located. There wasn’t much to see. Here are the views to the north (left) and east (right).
This large spider (on the outside of the glass and one of several) was probably more interesting.
Outside the building, I noticed this set of solar panels. There were others in the area too. Seems out of place somehow.
Along the trail was this beacon plaque. Again, note the condition.
Adjacent to the lighthouse property is a stairway down the cliff to the water’s edge below. It begins as a set of stone steps.
It ends with these wooden stairs at the bottom.
There’s not much to see down there either. (Some folks were swimming in the rather cool water.)
Someone had taken the time to create these stone towers on the rocky beach.
From Lighthouse Back to Boathouse
As we continued along the trail loop, we found this sign. I guess they just want to make sure you’ve got your bearings.
We came across one of several cemeteries on the island. We could really only see this one headstone.
We didn’t complete the full Thordarson Trail Loop. We took a shortcut, of sorts, along the well-named Fernwood Trail. (This sign was at the west end.)
There were many of these ferns in the woods along the way.
If the ferns below look to be adult-person height, it’s because they were.
Other interesting flora along this trail included these orange flowers and orange fungus.
Several trees had some neat shelf fungus like this.
We didn’t know if we would be finding a bench along the way, so when it got to be lunch time, we used this log instead.
To the south and east of the boathouse is most of the camping area, which we didn’t explore. This large stone wall “guards” the entrance to that area. The path is called Michigan Avenue, for reasons unknown.
This stone with an Indian head carved into it lies near that entrance. No idea if this is supposed to be someone who actually lived in the past or why it’s here.
From the south side of the boathouse, you can see this spit of land that juts southwest toward Washington Island.
Washington Island to the Mainland
I got to wondering, as we waited to board the car ferry on Washington Island to go back to the mainland, what would happen if too many people waited for the last ferry of the day – more than would fit on a single ship.
What happened to us sort of solves this problem.
We arrived in time for the second-to-last ferry of the day, but it was already full. Eventually enough other vehicles showed up that they loaded another unscheduled ferry to take us all back to Northport. I guess this is what they’d do at the end of the day, if needed.
So we had an enjoyable visit to Rock Island. I hope that someone has the time and funds to fix it up in the near future. It really could use an overhaul.
Rock Island Vitals
Nearest City
Detroit Harbor, Washington Island, Wisconsin (7.5 miles, including ferry ride)
Nearest Emergency Facility
Detroit Harbor, Washington Island, Wisconsin (7.5 miles, including ferry ride)
Hours
6:00 AM to 11:00 PM, year-round
Cost
Vehicle admission sticker not required, but there are fees for 2 ferry rides
State Parks Journey 
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