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Joe Steinbring

Big Bay State Park

A long, curving sand beach along a blue bay, seen from above a forest, with a catamaran offshore.
Big Bay from above, in August 2021.2021 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring
Static offline map showing Big Bay State Park in Wisconsin with a location pin.

Big Bay State Park is on Madeline Island, the largest of the Apostle Islands, a short ferry ride across Lake Superior from Bayfield. I spent the early afternoon of August 11, 2021, there, on a clear, sunny day. That summer, Wisconsin’s state parks were standing in for the international trips the pandemic had put on hold. I started on Big Bay Point, where the trail runs along low bluffs of red sandstone above water clear enough to see the rocks on the bottom, and then went over to the beach, a long curve of pale sand around Big Bay. At the water’s edge, the sand gives way to rounded red and brown stones, and behind the beach, a boardwalk crosses the Big Bay Sand Spit and Bog State Natural Area. From above, the whole bay comes into view at once: the sand, the shallows over it, and a catamaran anchored offshore.

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  • Red sandstone ledges and boulders at the edge of clear blue water, under a leaning tree.

    The red sandstone of Big Bay Point.

    2021 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

  • Rounded red, brown, and tan stones at the edge of a lake, with a beach and a catamaran beyond.

    Stones at the water’s edge, with the beach behind.

    2021 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

  • A wooden sign for the Big Bay Sand Spit and Bog State Natural Area beside a boardwalk.

    The boardwalk across the Big Bay Sand Spit and Bog State Natural Area.

    2021 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

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