When you imagine yourself exploring an island for the day, does it involve sandy beaches and palm trees? This particular island has the sandy beaches covered, but the palm trees are nowhere to be found.
Madeline Island is located among the Apostle Islands and Bayfield, WI. Though Madeline Island is not technically part of the National Park system, it is part of the Apostle Islands chain that is associated with National Lakeshore.
Because there are permanent residents on Madeline Island, a car ferry runs consistently throughout the day all year long. Tickets are required, whether you bring your vehicle, your bike, or just walk onto the ferry. Check out the Madeline Island Ferry page for schedules and ticket information. It is good to know that you want to arrive well before your ideal departure time in order to ensure you will make the boat. We had to wait an extra ferry run due to a cement truck taking priority.
There is a State Park on the island, Big Bay State Park that has camping available, however you do need to make reservations in advance, and they do fill up quickly, so make sure that you check that prior to making plans to take your camper onto the island. Unfortunately the campground was full during our visit, so we were not able to spend the night on the island. It will be very well advertised as to what time the last ferry is at the end of the day, make sure that you give yourself plenty of time to make it back to the ferry dock in order to avoid being stranded with just your vehicle on the island for the night.
We packed a cooler with sandwiches and drinks for the day and opted not to rent bikes on the island since the park is a seven mile bike ride, though that is an option as well. Our plan was to head up to the township park, and hang out at the beach for the day.
The current regulations, due to Covid, for Wisconsin State Parks, require you to purchase an annual vehicle registration pass online, and then make a daily reservation through their park system. Since I did not want to purchase an annual pass for just one day, some quick research proved that Big Bay Town Park, which does not require a pass of any type, is actually attached to Big Bay State Park.
We drove the 7 miles from the boat ferry, to Big Bay Town Park, where we were able to find a parking spot in the lot nearest to the stairs leading down to the beach.
This was an amazing location for a lazy day on the beach, because it was located on a quiet lagoon. You had the choice to head over to the Lake Superior side of the peninsula, or stay on the lagoon side which was sandy, and had a very slow moving current. This allowed Bubba to play carefree, and allowed Buddy and Buggie the opportunity to search for special rocks under the water with their snorkel gear.
A beach umbrella, in addition to a blanket and lots of drinking water, would be recommended for a day of pure enjoyment. Even though the lake and lagoon are separated by a line of trees, they never seemed to cast shade on the beach on the lagoon side, which could have made for a hot and sticky day. 
Cell phone reception on the island is not great. We needed to make sure that we came back into the main part of town before 4 o’clock, because Buggie had a zoom call with a teacher (how very summer 2020 of us!). We were able to find enough cell reception near the ice cream shop along the main street in town, to sit on the beach and hold the conference call.
After that, we swung around town and followed the signs to enter the line for the return ferry back to the mainland. Once on the ferry, you are able to turn your car off and exit your vehicle for a seating area that is on the upper deck.
Once we returned back to Bayfield, we grabbed a fire roasted pizza, and then headed off to explore more of the Apostle Islands on the ground. You can read more about our complete Apostle Island adventure HERE.
All good adventures can use a day of relaxation every now and then. Our day on Madeline Island was the perfect lazy day of rest with a mild side of adventure. Bubba saved all of his resting for the car ride home! 
