APOSTLE ISLANDS, WI (AP)-- This winter's relentless cold is not keeping an unprecedented number of people from trekking on frozen Lake Superior to view the ice caves in northern Wisconsin.
Julie Van Stappen, with the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, says more than 35,000 have hiked to the caves since they deemed them accessible January 15.
The last time they were accessible was in February 2009, when about 8,500 people visited in the first month.
She says social media is playing a bigger role this year in getting the word out.
She says it's been so cold for so long that a lot of the clear and blue ice formations have remained, rather than melting and reforming into cloudy ice. Other highlights include orange-pink formations, from the sandstone eroding as well as delicate hoar frost.
