Let's Go Places: Kelleys Island

 

Sigh, the last day of vacation is finally here.  It's very sad but at least we have one last island to explore.  It's time for island #4 of 4 on The Great Island Bender of 2023.

When we started our island journey, I could confidently rank Kelleys as my 3rd favorite of the three US islands that I'd visited.  If you ask around, people will tell you that Kelleys is superior to Put in Bay, specifically because it has less of a party vibe.  My take is that sure Kelleys is nice, but it has less stuff to do with just as many bars.

This was my third visit, so did I confirm what I'd seen before or was the third time the charm?

TL&DR - the third time was the charm.  Let's go to Kelleys Island!

Our first item of business is a punctuation check - it is Kelleys Island and not Kelley's Island or Kelleys' Island.  The name comes from the Kelley brothers, who purchased it in the 1840s.  Size wise it's four square miles, so loads bigger than any of the Bass Islands but way smaller than Pelee.  The population is competitive with Pelee at 250 people with a ton of summer visitors.

Just like all of our other island visits, it started with a ferry ride.  The ferry dock is on the south of the island.

On arrival the ferry was greeted by a horde of golf carts.  For this trip, I had my bike, so I was on the road in no time.

I took a right turn out of the ferry lot, which had me heading east.  I had the lake at my right and cool island houses at my left.

Cool island window treatments - check.

Our first point of interest is the airport.  It has a way of getting your attention.

I haven't talked about the island airports until now, but all of the islands have them, even North Bass.  The ferries don't run in the winter, so the airports are vital.  The Kelleys airport is by far my favorite.

I'd heard about a sculpture garden on the island but wasn't sure where it was.  I think I would have missed it if I'd been in a golf cart, but the sign was a lot easier to see from the bike.  It's on a side road behind the airport.

If you like big butts and you cannot lie, then you definitely need to visit The Charles Herndon Sculpture Garden - and if you're not so into that, you don't have to feel bad about missing it.  I'll admit that my tastes in sculpture gardens and butt statues are more in line with what I saw at Allerton Park in Champaign, but this was an easy and free stop to make.

I got back on the road and hit up the Scheele Nature Preserve on the northeast side of the island.  It was a short hike that ended in a gorgeous beach.

My next port of call was the beach at the State Park.

After that it was time for a "new to me" Kelleys Island experience.  The glacial grooves are one of the top attractions, but they were closed for restoration last year so this was my first time seeing them.

Groovy man...look I don't want to oversell it, but they are impressive.

For our next destination, we're going to the North Shore Loop trail.  Before we get to the hiking, we have an old quarry building to explore.  Back in the day, the limestone mining was a big industry on Kelleys.

Here's the "before" picture that's in the Kelleys Island museum.

Here is what it looks like today.

Let's go inside!

I'd seen the building before, but this was my first time exploring the trail. I'd say it's about a mile, so nothing too long but it pays off in gorgeous lake views.

And ooh another abandoned building to explore.

There weren't any signs so I wasn't sure if I was "supposed to" go inside but it was clear that other people had so I went for it.  I asked about it later when I went to the Kelleys Island museum, and they told me that it was used to store ammo for mine blasting back in the day.

After the hike I continued my loop of the island.  This is where I will fess up my reason for taking the loop from east to west - the west side of the island has a huge hill so I cherry picked the "downhill" direction for my ride.  In general the terrain is a bit hillier that the other islands but nothing too extreme.

I made it nearly full circle to downtown but I wasn't ready to finish the loop yet.  My next port of call was the museum.  In my non-island trips I've noted that sometimes museums just end up being "buildings full of stuff" - yes it's always useful to go to museums for area background but they aren't always wildly exciting.  I've got to shout out all of the island museums as being the exceptions to this rule: Pelee, Put in Bay, and most of all Kelleys were standouts.

The museum is the building on the right plus the old German Reformed church.  Why is there a German church on a small island in Ohio?  Same reason that there's a Biergarten on Put in Bay - because the Germans were the O.G. grape growers and wine makers.

I would definitely have reserved a pew close to the boiler in winter if I'd been a member of the congregation back in the day.

With that I had one more sight to see on the island - Inscription Rock is a big old rock near the shore line that was discovered to have ancient American Indian carvings on it.  The structure that's built above the rock is to protect it from further damage from the elements.

Sadly if you carve a rock in prehistoric times and let it sit out, there isn't much left to see in 2023.  The inscriptions were copied in the 1850s when they were much more distinct so that's how the world knows what used to be here and why everyone makes a big deal about it.  It's an easy visit to make, but don't feel bad if you miss it, or in my case, don't get around to it until your third visit.

And with that, it was mid afternoon and it was time to go home.  With 14 miles on the bike, I pulled into the ferry and caught the next ride.

Kelleys Island Wrap Up

Here's my Kelleys Island journey:

Trip #1: July 2022.  The hubs and I came here on the Goodtime Island Hopping Cruise.  We only had 90 minutes on the island, and it was very crowded.  We weren't really sure what to see, so we got a golf cart and drove around.  It was a fun ride until the end when there was a big time bizarre golf cart traffic jam.  It was very stressful and we thought we were going to miss our boat. 

Trip #2: September 2022.  I spent an afternoon here on one of my solo trips.  I got a golf cart and drove around, which was pleasant enough but I didn't find very much to do.

Trip #3: you just read about it!  I was able to observe much more on the bike than in the golf cart.  Kelleys has started to win me over.

Trip #next: start hiking the quarry trail, which is 4.5 miles.  Other than that, I've kind of done all the things, but it would still be neat to come back and do another bike loop of the island, eat at the restaurants, and to stay overnight here sometime.

Generally speaking, I agree that it's fun to come to Kelleys to relax and that it offers a good balance of less touristy stuff than Put in Bay while still having loads more stuff to do than Pelee or Middle Bass.  What I disagree with is the local advice "go to Kelleys so that you don't have to deal with the partying on Put in Bay".  Excuse me?  There are plenty of bars on Kelleys and I'm guessing no fewer alcohol sales.  Yes there's a little more space here, but it can still get crowded (refer above to the traffic jam on our first visit).  I say come to Kelleys because it's Kelleys, not because it's a "better" Put in Bay.

The only other negative observation that I have is that the ferry doesn't take reservations for cars, so while there was room to spare on the ferry when I came in the morning, there was a long line of cars waiting to get on for the return trip.  I overheard someone saying that the wait times can get very long during peak travel times.  My takeaway is that I would do everything possible to never ever bring a car here.

The Great Island Bender of 2023 Wrap Up

Sigh, vacation is really over now and all that we have to show for it is the memories and hundreds of pictures.

Thanks for the memories Point Pelee!

 Pelee Island, you stole my heart.

It's always a pleasure Middle Bass.

Put in Bay, you're my kind of place

And Kelleys...it took me a while to warm up to you, but you have me now. 

Thanks for hanging out with me and letting me relive vacation!