Celebrating National Park Week with Isle Royale and ADG’s Latest National Parks Coffee Table Book
The following is the opening statement from the National Park Service when they announced details for National Park Week 2025:
“Love national parks? There’s a holiday for that! Join us for National Park Week happening April 19 to April 27 to celebrate everything ‘parks.’ There are more than 400 national parks of different shapes, sizes, and kinds to experience. Also discover what the National Park Service does to preserve natural and cultural heritage and provide recreational opportunities in communities across the country—and even the world!”
This is a great time to reflect on the beauty of America’s Best Idea, the preservation and protection of massive tracts of iconic landscapes and the plants and animals that live in these stunning natural lands.
We believe strongly in the mission and vision behind the national parks, so in addition to celebrating and preserving the parks through vintage poster art of national parks, national park prints, and original art of the national parks, ADG donates a portion of its profits to the National Park Foundation each year. Your purchase helps to protect these cherished places!
Pictured below: Collaborating Artist Kenneth Crane takes in the view at Lookout Louise, one of the highest points at Isle Royale National Park.
Celebrating National Parks with ADG’s Most Popular 2024 Product Release
Collaborating artist Kenneth Crane and ADG staff writer Ren Brabenec went to Isle Royale National Park last summer while working on Wilderness & Wonder: An Illustrated Guide to the National Parks.
What book is this, you say? A national park guidebook and illustrated national park coffee table book, we answer! Master illustrator Kenneth Crane, ADG Founder and Creative Director Joel Anderson, and writer/researcher Ren Brabenec worked together to publish a book for readers of all ages to explore the awe-inspiring aspects of the national parks.
Perfect for outdoor lovers, travel enthusiasts, history buffs, and national park poster art fans, this book is a tabletop decor piece, a jaw-dropping one-of-a-kind gift, and a useful national park guidebook all in one.
Order Wilderness & Wonder as an excellent present and educational resource for the national park enthusiast in your life, and grab a copy for your coffee table while you’re at it. This book is a fantastic conversation starter!
Wilderness & Wonder was our biggest release in 2024, and we launched it shortly after visiting Isle Royale National Park, so it seemed fitting to feature the book here. Read on for information about one of our favorite national parks, and a get a sneak preview of Isle Royale as featured in the Wilderness & Wonder book!
An Intro to Isle Royale National Park
Before we talk about Isle Royale, check out this reel from ADG’s trip to Isle Royale National Park:
Pictured below: Collaborating Artist Kenneth Crane and ADG Writer/Researcher Ren Brabenec pose next to the welcome sign in Rock Harbor, the beating heart of Isle Royale National Park.
It’s fitting to celebrate Isle Royale National Park during National Park Week 2025, as the island celebrated its 85th anniversary of becoming a national park this year. Here’s how the park rangers stationed on Isle Royale introduce one of America’s most iconic national parks:
“Explore a rugged, isolated island far from our connected communities. Isle Royale offers adventures for backpackers, hikers, boaters, paddlers, and divers. Cross Lake Superior and make a commitment: Become a part of this island, and let it become a part of you. Find peace and refuge in island wilderness – because Isle Royale, in turn, finds refuge in us. Help Isle Royale stay wild.”
There is much that makes Isle Royale National Park unique. For example, the park is the least-visited but most revisited national park in the lower 48. How is it that a park that receives as many visitors in a year as Yellowstone gets in a day is the most popular park to return to out of the hundreds of National Park Service sites in the U.S.?
Each person who visits the island has their own story for why the island tends to call them back time and time again, giving the park its coveted title of “Most Revisited Park on the Roster.” One sentiment, shared by journalist Albert Stoll, Jr., who advocated for the island’s protection as a national park in the 1930s and 40s, perhaps sums it up best. An unimposing sign placed carefully on the Stoll Trail on the island’s southeastern side has this quote from Stoll on it: “Isle Royale is a part of an entirely different world than the one in which we labor daily. It knows nothing and cares less of the triumphs of modern civilization.”
Pictured below: ADG's staff writer Ren Brabenec watches a sunset from Isle Royale's "Daisy Farm" harbor and campground.
Here’s how we introduced Isle Royale National Park in our Wilderness & Wonder national parks guidebook:
“One of the most remote parks on the roster, Michigan’s Isle Royale National Park offers a freedom not found elsewhere. It may be the least-visited park in the contiguous U.S., yet the rangers who care for Isle Royale say it is the most revisited of all the parks. After laying eyes on it, visitors see why. The 206 square miles of forests, hills, trails, campgrounds, beaches, and outlying islands have a way of calling one back.”
Another unique feature of the park is the ongoing scientific research that wildlife biologists perform in the park, research that is used not just in the U.S. but around the world to better understand wildlife and humankind’s role in it. Again quoting our book:
“Isle Royale is home to the longest ongoing predator-prey study in the world. The annual study began in 1958 and has shown in detail how the island’s moose and wolves interact, two species that have become inherently reliant on each other for survival. The annual study is lauded in science journals the world over for being one of the most valuable bodies of work in discovering how predator and prey species affect not only each other but entire ecosystems around them.”
If we had to expand on the reasons why Isle Royale National Park is special, we’d say the biggest perk of visiting the park is simply leaving technology, internet, cell service, city lights, traffic, electricity, and television behind for a few days and just letting yourself fall into a more natural state of being. The island has no roads, no automobiles, and very minimal infrastructure. It’s a true “roughing it” experience (unless you want to spring for a night at the lodge, which is usually booked out months in advance!
Pictured Below: Ken and Ren pose for a selfie at the Hidden Lake dock before embarking on some 38 miles of backpacking (spread out over three days, of course).
As for our advice on visiting one of America’s most remote national parks, we’ll defer to the National Park Service rangers who work there, as their advice was crucial when Ken and Ren visited the island last summer.
According to rangers, “plan ahead” and “be ready for change” are the two most important rules when traveling to the island. To help with this, every visitor receives a face-to-face orientation from a ranger who advises them on how to enjoy the island safely and ethically. Park rangers even compiled a First Timer’s Guide to Isle Royale, available on the NPS website.
Celebrating National Park Week in Style
Isle Royale National Park may not be on the docket for our own 2025 national park adventure plans, but there certainly are others. Stay tuned for big travel plans and poster art to celebrate future adventures in the national parks!
If you need a souvenir to remember a trip or inspiration for a future journey, our award-winning Illustrated American National Parks Collection features numerous original illustrations for all 63 American National Parks.
Until next time,
-Ren Brabenec
Anderson Design Group Staff Writer
Pictured Below: Two photos depicting the stark contrasts of Isle Royale; deep, boreal forests and sweeping, lakeshore vistas.
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