The strait separating peninsular Door County and Washington Island has long been known as Death’s Door, for the many sailors its hidden rocks and tempestuous weather claimed in centuries past. But take the car ferry from the mainland over to the other side, and you’ll find a place that’s halfway to heaven, a peaceful isle that even in Door County’s high season feels like a secret. Here’s how to spend the perfect weekend there.
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Saturday
9 a.m.
Catch the car ferry from Northport, at the peninsula’s tip. After you dock, drive up the island’s main road – called, appropriately, Main Road – on your way to Mountain Wayside Park. Climb the 186 steps to the top of its lookout tower to get the lay of the (is)land with 360-degree views over the treetops. On a clear day, you can make out Rock Island to the northeast. Ferry: auto $30, plus $15 per adult, $8 for kids 6-11, free for 5 and under.
10:30 a.m.
A pair of former fishing sheds are part of the humble Jackson Harbor Maritime Museum, which provides a glimpse of the challenges that life on the island long entailed. Don’t miss the 1930 “snowmobile,” a Ford Model A outfitted with caterpillar treads to haul supplies across the ice to the island in winter. Just outside the museum is the Christianson House, a 1917 fisherman’s cottage restored to look as it did in the 1940s. Free admission.
12:30 p.m.
Grab sandwiches from Jackson Harbor Soup ($5.50-$12.75,) for a picnic at Schoolhouse Beach, which is composed of gray stones the size of your palm, so smooth as to be almost velvety. They’re the product of limestone from nearby Boyer’s Bluff that waves have knocked together and deposited here over centuries, making Schoolhouse one of only a few beaches like it in the world. If you have a kayak or snorkeling equipment, you can hunt down the remains of the Louisiana, a steamer that sank here in a 1913 storm.
4 p.m.
The sign above the back bar at Nelsen’s Hall says, “Absolutely no alcoholic beverages in this building.” It’s a joke, one that was on the 1920s feds. Opened in 1899, Nelsen’s is the longest (legally) continuously operating pub in the state. The bar stayed open during Prohibition thanks to its founder’s pharmaceutical license that allowed him to sell bitters, which by law was considered a stomach tonic. Claim a part of this loophole-exploiting legacy by joining Nelsen’s Bitters Club: Down a shot of Angostura bitters, stick your thumb in the bottom of the glass, and press your stained thumbprint onto your official membership card.
6 p.m.
Bunk for the night at unfussily elegant Hotel Washington. Its eight rooms come with organic toiletries and beds handcrafted from local maple. The hotel’s farm-to-table restaurant plans its seasonal menu with island farmers who supply its ingredients (entrées $21-$32). Expect offerings like steak from island-raised cattle, and homemade caraway and honeycomb ice cream. There’s a dining room, of course, but it’s hard to beat the beauty of a meal outside on the hotel’s lawn at sunset. $139-$310 per night.
Sunday
10 a.m.
After a light hotel breakfast, join a kayak tour of Detroit Harbor. Guides offer tales of island history, providing context to the shallow 19th-century shipwrecks you can spy in the water. As you explore the harbor’s bays and islands, be sure to look up to spot the gulls, cormorants and bald eagles that visit the area. Tours: $65-$250.
12:30 p.m.
Post paddle, pull up to Albatross Drive-In for a bacon Swiss burger and one of 60 different milkshakes. Relax in a glider swing on the lawn, or head around back to the tiki bar for local beer and hard cider. $6.25-$12.50.
2 p.m.
Modeled on a 12th-century stave church in Norway, the island’s Stavkirke celebrates the community’s Scandinavian heritage. Pass through its door – kept eternally open by a doorstop screwed into the floor – and the building’s moody exterior of dark wood and carved dragon heads gives way to honey-colored timbers and sun filtering through stained glass windows. Up in the rafters is a model of a Mackinac schooner and a dangling toolbelt, the latter a memorial to one of the church’s late carpenters.
2:30 p.m.
End your visit with a few blissful hours of aromatherapy at Fragrant Isle, the Midwest’s largest single-site lavender farm. Peak bloom typically arrives in mid-July, when the purple rows running into the distance seem pulled straight from Provence. Pick up some lavender-infused soaps and lotions before whiling away the afternoon over lavender rosé slushies on the patio.
It’ll be tempting to let the 6 p.m. ferry, the last one to the mainland, sail without you and just stay on this heavenly little island forever. But this is one paradise you can always return to, simply by slipping through Death’s Door.
