I wanted to get back to writing more trip reports or just about diving in general so I figured I would start with Isle Royale in Lake Superior.
This was my 4th diving trip to Isle Royale. I first went in 2021, twice in 2022 and finally just finished up my most recent trip there the end of August 2023. I’m by no means an expert on the wrecks or the location but I honestly feel it is some of the best wreck diving in the Great Lakes. I could spend all week diving just the wreck of the Kamloops alone. This is world-class cold water wreck diving.
But first what and where is Isle Royale?
Isle Royale is the largest island in Lake Superior. It is the second largest island in the Great Lakes after Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron. While very close to the Canadian border it is located in United States waters and is technically part of northwestern Michigan. Isle Royale and it’s surrounding waters and smaller isles are part of Isle Royale National Park which is one of the least visited and most remote national parks in the United States. It is a popular destination for hikers, backpackers and wilderness-seekers.
Now I’ll just stop right now and say this is not the tiny little pond you grew up on that you called a lake. For those not familiar the Great Lakes are essentially large fresh water inland seas. Calling them a lake is akin to calling the water-filled pothole in front of your house a pond. They’re massive. The Great Lakes hold about 1/5 the world’s fresh water.
The island’s coastline is stunningly beautiful and often reminds me of Acadia National Park in Maine. As you might have guessed most people do not go there for the diving but the hiking. The diving of course is spectacular but I’ll get to that later.
How to get to Isle Royale?
Well for me it starts with a long-ass 23 hour drive either around Canada’s northern Lake Superior shore OR across the United States to get to Grand Portage, Minnesota. Grand Portage is an Indian reservation of the Grand Portage Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. It’s about 10 minutes from the Canadian border and is where you board the dive boat. For me it’s actually quicker to drive through Canada to get to Grand Portage, MN than it is to go through the United States.
Pro Tip: There is a shitty little Indian casino in Grand Portage if you wanted to spend your last night in a proper hotel bed but the rooms often sell out quickly so you need to book in advance. The casino is in the same location as the marina/campground where the boat departs. The casino also has a restaurant for dinner but you are much better off driving 35 minutes south to Grand Marais. Lots of good restaurant and hotel options there. We always just slept on the boat the night before but if you want the last vestiges of comfort and civilization then I suggest a hotel room.
From Grand Portage, MN it’s about a 3-4 hour boat ride (on an 8kt boat) to get to the island. The ferry boats are a little faster.
How do I dive there?
As far as I know there is only one commercial dive charter regularly running dive charters to Isle Royale right now. That is Isle Royale Charters owned by Capt. Ryan Staley. There are some private dive boats that run there but Ryan is currently your only option if you want to dive Isle Royale from a charter boat. https://isleroyalecharters.com/
It goes without saying but Ryan runs a fantastic dive operation and is often booked several years in advance. If you want to dive there you need to sign up and wait or hope that someone cancels or has a spot open on one of their trips. There is a reason he is booked out years in advance with plenty of repeat customers. The diving is incredible and his hospitality is second to none.
The Liveaboard / Dive Boat
Ryan’s boat is the Discovery which is a custom built 42-ft dive vessel originally built by Paul Turpin and run out of Rossport, Ontario. It is a six-pack vessel and there is plenty of room for bailouts and rebreather and all other diving accoutrements. The Discovery takes 6 paying customers and usually one crewmember and of course the captain. It is an awesome vessel with plenty of deck space to lounge when you’re not diving. Prior to that Ryan owned a boat called Superior Diver but that was before my time.
Make no mistake however this is not the Aquacat or Aggressor fleet. If that is the kind of trip you’re expecting you should maybe skip this one. You are sleeping in bunks and cots but despite that it is very comfortable provided you are with good group of people that you like. My recommendation is to make sure you’re compatible with the people you book the trip with. Personal space is at a premium.
This is very much camping. Some might even call it glamping. By glamping I mean you have access to running water, electricity, beer/alcohol, and will eat very well every night. Make sure to bring your own sleeping bag, pillow, a towel and a small bag of clothes. There is really no room or need for massive suitcases.
Depending on which wrecks you do and where you dock for night you may also have the opportunity to camp on land if that interests you. Some of the harbors where you dock for the night may have shelters or areas where you can setup a tent or hammock if you want to not sleep on a boat and be one with nature. I’ve seen multiple moose on 3 out of the 4 trips that I have been on. There is also good hiking available but most of us were too tired after diving to enjoy that.
I really enjoy staying on Birch Island which is just before you enter McCargoe Cove. Birch has it’s own shelter, dock, toilet facilities and even LTE coverage if you walk up the trail a little bit!
It’s probably here that I should note that you are not always guarantied cellphone coverage in Isle Royale. Occasionally you’ll pick up roaming from Canada and I think Rock Harbor has limited Wifi from the hotel. Most of the time you have no or very little cell phone signal however Ryan does have a satellite phone that can send text messages in an emergency.
Food
Ryan is an excellent cook and you will eat very well. He has plenty of snacks on the boat but feel free to bring your own small items if you want.
He makes coffee and breakfast every morning (it varies from eggs and bacon, pancakes and sausages, french toast, etc). He serves lunch every day from pulled pork sandwiches, to beef stew and cold cut sandwiches and other various snacks.
Dinners are everything from grilled steaks and mashed potatoes, to marinated pork chops and candied carrots, to pasta and garlic bread with salad. I know that I am missing a few meals. The point is you won’t go hungry. He has a pretty well orchestrated and set meal schedule.
Every night meal includes “after dinner mints” aka Oreo cookies with various flavors.
If you make it to Rock Harbor there is one restaurant on the island called Greenstone Grill. They have beer on draught and offer pizza and burgers. Despite having beer on the boat sometimes it’s just nice to have a cold draught beer after diving.
Drinks
There is filtered fresh water on the boat with UV filter. There is also an ice making machine which was added last year. It is highly recommended that you bring your own alcohol. There is a large cooler for customers on the top deck where you can bring your own sodas or beer. Try not to bring too many large personal coolers on the boat but if you have to there is space up forward near the bow for a couple smaller coolers.
Gas Logistics / Bailouts
Ryan has a compressor on the boat with a trimix stick. He has plenty of helium and oxygen for rebreather divers. He can fill nitrox or trimix right from the dive benches. He has compressor whips along the benches so that you don’t even need to move your diluent or inflation bottles.
He also has a large booster and can do high pressure oxygen fills with no issues. For rebreather divers he typically fills 10/50 from his trimix stick which will cover the vast majority of wrecks.
While Ryan can fill and support all of your diving fill needs my recommendation is to bring a few extra sets of 3L rebreather bottles and inflation bottles as a buffer. It just makes logistics a little easier and you can go few days without having to worry about fills.
For bailouts – You can put them on in the water or Ryan and his crew will happily clip them off to you. Ryan and his crew are all rebreather divers and know what they’re doing. Most people bring 2 AL80s. A bottom mix with 15/55 and 50% for deco. I’d personally find 18/45 a bit hot the Kamloops at max depth but I suppose you could get away with it.
When you’re climbing out of the water you can either hand up bailouts or clip them off to a line. It’s really whatever you want to do and what makes the most sense for the conditions. Also – If requested the boat will often hang O2 at 20′ which is definitely not a bad idea.
Diving Conditions
Expect about 38-39f (~4c) on the bottom. That’s just how Lake Superior is. The thermoclines can vary quite widely, winds can blow cold water back in. In 2022 one of my trips was early July and it was in the low 40s all the way up to 10ft (~3m) with very little thermocline. This last trip in late August we had a very comfortable 60 degree thermocline starting at 30ft (~9m). Lake Superiors takes all summer to “warm” up. Your best chance is mid to late-August for the warmest water.
It’s not a terrible idea to bring two drysuits or at minimum replacement wrist and neck seals if your suit has them. These are not the types of dives to do with a leaky suit.
I highly recommend good undergarments, by that I mean something rated for 39-42 degree water (~4c). I also recommend dry gloves and heated undergarments. While I’m sure you can get away without both of these things your diving enjoyment may suffer. I know people have dove for years and still dive without these things but facing 80 minutes of decompression on the Kamloops when you hit your first thermocline at 10ft (~3m) is quite brisk.
I can’t speak for all the trips but it’s typically 5 days of diving with 8-10 dives. Usually 1 dive the first day as a sort of shake down dive and 2 dives a day for the rest of the trip, weather and conditions permitting. Keep in mind you’re on a boat and stuff never really completely dries out. I highly recommend hanging your undergarments up in the sun the first chance you get. Make sure to bring them in at night otherwise they’ll be covered in dew by the next morning
One thing to note: A couple of the ports on Isle Royale do have laundry machines and real toilets (Windiago and Rock Harbor) if I recall but you are not always guarantied to make it to either of these places. On one trip it was very nice to have use of a dryer because someone flooded their suit and it had been raining for 2 days straight so nothing could dry. I pack multiple base layers to be safe.
Visibility is often very good. I would say 40-50ft+ but unlike Lake Huron and Lake Michigan it’s dark. The really nice thing about Lake Superior are that the wrecks are not covered in quagga mussels like you see in Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. Everything is bare wood or metal, just as it went down.
The Weather
Well it’s Lake Superior. It can be unpredictable. It’s one of the main reasons why there are so many wrecks in the first place. Despite that you do have options Some wrecks are more protected and sheltered than others. It just depends on wind direction. Seas in Lake Superior can build very quickly but they can also flatten out to a millpond with the right conditions. Unlike the ocean, there is often a very a small period between the waves which can make diving in anything over 4ft seas a bit uncomfortable since the period between the waves is so small.
Bring a sweater, long pants and a rain jacket to be safe. It can get cold at night. The boat has heat but no air conditioning but usually the fan keeps things very comfortable at night.
The Shipwrecks
See here: https://www.nps.gov/isro/learn/historyculture/shipwrecks.htm
Every time I’ve dove in Isle Royale we primarily focused on some of the deeper wrecks. Besides the America I do not have any experience diving the more shallow wrecks. In my opinion the SS Chester A. Congdon stern and the SS Emperor are worth multiple dives. The SS Kamloops however is the crown jewel of Isle Royale. We usually tried to do multiple days and dives on that wreck, weather permitting. I’m not going to write too extensively about the shipwrecks as there are plenty of people and websites that explain them better than I can.
The wrecks are all extremely well-preserved and all have artifacts that have not been heavily pilfered or salvaged making them all a virtual time capsules. You can dive most of these wrecks multiple times and not get bored.
SS America (0ft to 70ft)
Package Freighter (1898-1928) The midship and stern are intact, including engine room, galley, and numerous cabins.
SS Henry Chisholm (150ft / 45m)
Bulk Freighter (1880-1898) A large intact steam engine with drive shaft and prop dominate the wreck scene.
SS Chester A. Congdon stern (20ft to 220ft / 6m to 67m)
Bulk Freighter (1907-1918) Wreckage consists of intact pilot house and bow section on south side of reef and an intact stern on north side.
SS Emperor (26ft to 180ft / 8m to 54m)
Bulk Freighter (1910-1947) The wreck is basically intact, with the bow area showing most damage.
SS Kamloops (200-260ft / 60m to 79m)
Package Freighter (1924-1927) At extreme depth, the wreck is intact and undisturbed.
Closing Thoughts
I suppose I should end with some sort of conclusion. If you consider yourself an experienced cold water wreck/rebreather diver and have not dove Isle Royale then you’re really missing out. Are there better wrecks in the world? Sure but I would rate these up there with some of the best and least trafficked wrecks in the Great Lakes.
Ryan runs an awesome dive charter and and a great liveaboard however I do feel like when people hear the word liveaboard it invokes images of warm-weather and clear Caribbean waters with lounging mahogany sundecks, tropical fish, and girls in bikinis. This is not that type of liveaboard although the Discovery does boost a hot tub! Seriously, ask Ryan about it. Though it’s probably not the smartest idea after having done a 130 minute runtime on the Kamloops.
If I lived closer to Isle Royale then perhaps I’d go more often but 4 trips in 3 years means I’ll probably take a break next year. I look forward to going back up there again in a few years.
I also want to stress that this is cold water diving. I realize there is much colder water and more challenging diving out there but most people hear that term and think they understand it. Those familiar with Great Lakes diving know that is pretty much always 38-40f (~4c) on the bottom. The big difference with Lake Superior is it takes a long time to warm up and thermoclines are not always guarantied. Try to go later in August if you can. Late June and early July can be brutal if it hasn’t been particular warm.
Lastly you are on a boat in a remote location. You can’t just pop down to the corner store or order something from your favorite Internet dive shop. Make sure you have extra drysuit seals or a spare drysuit, extra rebreather cells, loop hoses, regulators, spare computers/controllers, etc. You don’t need to bring the whole kitchen sink but at least make sure you or someone in your group has sufficient spares and redundancy. It would really suck to get all the way there and find out your drysuit is undiveable or your rebreather is not repairable At that point you’re going to be doing a lot of drinking and sitting in silent reflection.
Having said that, realize you are on a small 42′ boat. Space is limited so you need to pack intelligently. Try to coordinate with others about what spares to bring. Huge roller bags and giant plastic bins are really not ideal.
I’m sure I left tons of things out of this trip review and they’ll come to me later. Honestly, Isle Royale is great and you should make a point to try to get up there. Bottom Line – It’s world-class fresh water wreck diving.
