• Tuesday-What'sUP July 16 - 12:45 am

The Isle Royale Queen IV sunset cruise is the place to be if you enjoy boat rides, sunsets and Keweenaw lighthouses. Kevin and Mandy Rathbun hopped on board the Queen recently for one of their evening cruises and Mandy decided to take us along for the ride with an assortment of her photos.

We start off with the Queen IV at her dock awaiting the arrival of the evening passengers. As they were leaving the Harbor, the first lighthouse on the tour comes up on your right, the Copper Harbor Lighthouse. The actual navigational light for this station is on top of the white tower, rather than in the actual lighthouse building. I really like the color of this lighthouse building; it is one of my favorite lighthouses.

Then Mandy snapped a neat photo of the churning water behind the boat, as it heads away from Copper Harbor, to circle Manitou Island off the tip of the Keweenaw. The next light the cruise passed by was the Manitou Island Lighthouse out on the eastern tip of the Island. This lighthouse is still lit as a navigational aide to boaters, warning them during times of low visibility, of the rocky shoals around the Island.

The third and last Lighthouse on the Queen's tour, is the Gull Rock Lighthouse situated on the western tip of Manitou Island. It's actually on a small rocky island that is called Gull Rock. This light is also still operational and is an important navigation aid for those boats traveling through the channel between Manitou Island and the tip of the Keweenaw.

Mandy's sunset over Copper Harbor completes the tour aboard the Isle Royale Queen IV. What a great way to end a day... or in the case of today's Pasty Cam... begin your day, too!

Very relaxing...thanks for the boat ride!

Would love to take this cruise! Thanks for the great pictures!

love those lighthouses

Love the Sunset Tours! While out in the shipping lanes Capt. Donnie chased the Mesabi Miner for us. I recommend everyone to take in a Sunset Tour!

Gotta love lighthouses! Great pictures!

Looks like lots of fun!

Great pics! I would love to take that sunset cruise. The opportunity to see these sites up close would be amazing! Thanks for sharing, Mandy. It's the next best thing to being there.

Thanks Mandy! Great photos!

Wow, those are simply beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

Beautiful photo's, I will have to look into that cruise as well. Made that same trip with my own boat several times, but I'd also like to see it from the view of the Queen.

oh what beautiful,beautiful pctures. i think i may
have to take that cruise one day.

I like the little boat tied to the dock in the first picture. I think those are neat looking boats.

Beautiful Shots Mandy...love the lighthouses...

For some people there is an attraction to the life of a light keeper when these stations were manned many years ago. I share in that attraction, at least to a modest degree, but I simply can't imagine spending weeks or months alone on a station as small and as isolated as Gull Rock. Others might be even more isolated but not many quite so small.

Great pics. The July 15 Traverse City newspaper ran an article on the Manitou Lighthouse.