The cost to see the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore’s ice caves could be going up.
The park is proposing a $5 special recreation permit fee to see the Lake Superior ice caves, which last winter received national attention and about 138,000 visitors.
At the time, visitors only had to pay a parking fee of $3 per vehicle if parking at a trailhead parking lot. The National Park Service, which operates the park in northern Wisconsin, says about $47,000 was generated through that fee — only a fraction of what it cost to manage the unexpected throngs of visitors. Other groups stepped in to provide funding and additional support.
The new special recreation permit fee, which would be charged to visitors 12 and older, would not cover all the costs associated with an open ice caves season, but it would “make great strides in providing sufficient staff and infrastructure for this event,” the park service said in a news release Wednesday.
“We are committed to keeping the park affordable but we also want to provide visitors with the best possible experience while not overburdening our partners,” Chris Smith, acting superintendent for the park, said in a statement.
The park service is holding two open houses to discuss the new fee and listen to public comments. They will take place at 10 a.m. to noon Oct. 22 at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center in Ashland, Wis.; and 4 to 6 p.m. Oct. 23 at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Headquarters in Bayfield, Wis.
In January, a cold winter and lack of wind helped make ice along the lakeshore’s mainland sea caves safe for travel for the first time since 2009. That year, fewer than 10,000 people visited the caves.
The park service kept the ice caves open into March and saw a record number of people come out to see the frozen sights as word of the caves spread through the media and social networks.
The phenomenon brought in nearly $10 million in revenue to local communities, the park service said.
