Visit the Ice Caves?

Remember the craze over last year’s ice caves near the Apostle Islands? I do because I really wanted to visit them. The day I planned to visit them was super cold and windy and I ended up not making the ice hike out to see them. However, hundreds of thousands of people did make the trek, so many in fact the National Park Service decided to charge visitors for the experience this year.

When the announcement to charge a fee to visit the ice caves was made it rubbed me the wrong way. I felt like it was a little bit greedy. I know staff had to manage the parking lot and maybe pick up some garbage or give people directions or guidance but what else did they have to do? The fact the lake doesn’t always freeze over good enough to visit the ice caves anyway just made charging a fee seem a little bit ridiculous.

I know that it was just my personal opinion but sometimes Mike thinks I can cast a curse on things I don’t approve of.  So far this year no one has been able to see the ice caves because the ice to get there hasn’t been good enough.  I feel badly for the local businesses because they were able to make money in a normally slower time of the year last year and I’m sure they were hoping for a repeat of last year.

There’s not too much time left for the ice to form solid enough so visitors can pay their $5 each to see the ice caves this year. Is Mother Nature taking my side and trying to teach someone a lesson about implementing a fee?  Probably not, but I can think that anyway and if the ice does form, I’ll be in line with my $5 bill, reluctantly handing it over to make the voyage to the ice caves.