A large island surrounded by the cold, clear waters of the biggest freshwater lake in the world offers the best wilderness camping in Michigan, but taking advantage of that experience isn’t easy.

Isle Royale, 45 miles long by nine miles at its widest point, forms the center of Isle Royale National Park. (The park totals 850 square miles, but more than half is underwater land.)

Isle Royale National Park is so far away from the major Michigan population centers that it draws more people from other states, like Wisconsin and Minnesota.

While the 60-mile trip from the nearest Michigan shoreline requires an overnight stay, Isle Royale is only 20 miles from Grand Portage in Minnesota, and visitors from that port can do a round trip in one day.

Getting to Isle Royale is part of the fun. It’s a 550-mile drive from Detroit to Houghton, where the Ranger III ferry makes a 61/2-hour trip to the island for $49 each way, and 600 miles to Copper Harbor, where the Isle Royale Queen takes visitors to the island in 41/2 hours for $42.

Canoes and kayaks can be transported for about $20 each way, and while each visitor is allowed 100 pounds of baggage, there are additional charges for large gear such as outboard motors.

A seaplane service offered flights from Houghton, but it has been out of operation since 2002, and park officials say air service won’t start again before next summer.

The island has one lodge and numerous campgrounds. More than 160 miles of hiking trails offer superb vistas of roadless wilderness and the Lake Superior shore, and deep pits dug into the earth along the Stroll Trail mark where Indians dug copper 1,000 years ago. The first Indians lived on the island 4,500 years ago.

There is good fishing for lake trout, smallmouth bass and some coaster brook trout in Lake Superior along the shores, and several inland lakes on the island (the biggest more than seven miles long) hold bass and brook trout.

Camping on the island is free, but each visitor must pay a park use fee of $4 per day. Limited groceries and camping supplies are available on the island at Rock Harbor and Windigo, but campers should plan on bringing in most of what they need.

For information, call the park visitor center in Houghton at (906) 482-0984.