Eagle Bluff Lighthouse – Door County, Wisconsin
Door County Wisconsin is a great spot for lighthouse lovers, as there are quite a few located on the small peninsula of the state that reaches out into Lake Michigan. Eagle Bluff lighthouse is located in the town of Fish Creek, Wisconsin on the western side of the peninsula. It was built in 1868 for a sum of $12,000 and is still a working lighthouse today. Let’s take a closer look on what to expect when visiting the Eagle Bluff lighthouse in Door County, Wisconsin!
Eagle Bluff Lighthouse – Location
Eagle Bluff Lighthouse is located inside of Peninsula State Park, near the small community of Fish Creek, Wisconsin. Here is a map:
In order to visit the lighthouse, you will need to pay an entrance fee for the state park. Once inside the park, you can drive right up to the lighthouse – there is a decent sized parking lot available.
Visiting Eagle Bluff Lighthouse
As mentioned above, Eagle Bluff Lighthouse is located inside of Peninsula State Park, and an entrance fee is required for $11 if you have out-of-state license plates. The grounds of Eagle Bluff Lighthouse are open year-round. Tours are available from the Door County Historical Society typically from June to mid-October from 10am to 3:30pm for $5. There are often private tours happening around 10am-11am each day – the lighthouse is closed for tours during that time so plan accordingly if you want to go inside. Eagle Bluff Lighthouse has its keeper’s dwellings right inside the lighthouse, so this might be a more interesting tour than your typical tower-only lighthouse tour. I arrived here later in the afternoon and didn’t have time for a tour, so I just admired the lighthouse from the outside – you can access the lighthouse from sunrise to sunset.
The $11 entrance fee is a bit steep just to see a lighthouse and leave, so if you’re not crazy for lighthouses like I am, this might not be worth the price of admission (the $11 fee is per car). On the other hand, Peninsula State Park looks like it had a lot to offer, (hiking, kayaking, climbing a fire tower, and more) so if you’re doing other activities here, it might be worth it.
So for my visit, I pretty much just walked around the grounds, snapping some photos of the lighthouse. It’s a pretty cute lighthouse, but due to its location, it’s nearly impossible to take photos of it with Lake Michigan in the shot. There are, however, some nice views of Lake Michigan from this point.
Eagle Bluff Lighthouse – Final Thoughts
This is a nice lighthouse to see – the ground were well-kept and the lighthouse itself is interesting. Taking the $5 tour might be fun, as you’d be able to see how the lighthouse keeper lived back in the day, but you’ll need to arrive at the right time to do so. However, the state park entry fee at $11 is a bit steep if you’re just coming to see the lighthouse and leaving. Even as a lighthouse freak, I’m still not quite sure if it really was ‘worth it’ or not, being I was probably only in the park for about 15 minutes – I arrived late in the afternoon and didn’t have time for a hike or anything else. But I am on a mission to see every lighthouse I possibly can – so this was a one-and-done for me, checking it off the list!
