The one thing I wanted to do in Door County was walk to the Cana Island lighthouse. Cana Island Lighthouse is on an island, obviously, and there is a causeway that allows you to walk over to it. Since the lake levels are so high, it has been underwater and you can get a tractor pulled wagon ride over instead. Walking across the shallow water sounded more fun. This is is the whole reason I suggested Door County for our girl's weekend.
Getting to the lighthouse:
It is about 6 miles off Hwy 57 in Door County. There is a small parking lot to park in otherwise you are parking on the road. We got lucky and someone was leaving so we got to park in the lot. We did not walk to the lighthouse. We opted for the safer option of riding the hay wagon. We did talk about walking back.
On Cana Island
Once on the island, you stop in the visitor center and pay the entrance fee to climb the lighthouse and see the keeper's house. It is $10 for an adult to climb the tower and see the house. The tractor drive is like get your ticket to lighthouse but only one person needs to go in and pay for the tickets, then go get in line to climb the lighthouse. Once you've done that you can explore the house and grounds.
We were group 5 so we had some time to kill before we climbed the lighthouse. Only about 20 people at at time are allowed to climb the tower.
In the mean time we checked out the keeper's house which is your typical lightkeeper's house.
We also checked out the grounds. It was interesting history and nature.
Climbing the Tower
The lighthouse has a spiral staircase of 97 stairs to get to the view platform of the lighthouse.
The viewing platform has great view of Lake Michigan and the Island.
I will be honest the climb freaked me out. I really don't like open back stairs. Once I got to the top I was fine. The climb down wasn't too bad until the end when there was less to hang on to. I survived. Been there, done that.. don't need to do it again.
Return trip from Cana Island
Stacy and I did walk back from the lighthouse. We contemplated walking barefoot since we were both in sneakers but were advised against it since the stones were not as smooth as they looked.
The water was only ankle deep but with the waves it could be knee high or higher at times even though it didn't seem that bad.
The walk wasn't bad at all. The hardest part was not to fall over when a wave crashed. I was worried about dropping my new phone.
We made it back safe and sound. I would definitely walk it again. It was fun and not as cold as we thought it would be. In hindsight, walking back from the lighthouse is the way to go otherwise unless you have water shoes on, you are going to be climbing the tower in wet shoes.
Cana Island Lighthouse is worth seeing. Take the hayride, climb the tower, walk back. It was an enjoyable afternoon and definitely should be on your door county bucket list.
No comments:
Post a Comment