Beginning this winter it will cost you $5 to view the ice caves if they materialize at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore/NPS

If the coming winter months ice over Lake Superior at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and turn the mainland caves into castles of ice, it'll cost you a little to see them.

Last winter the thousands of people who trekked to the park in northern Wisconsin to tour the caves created a financial squeeze for the National Park Service. The park ran up a bill of roughly $450,000 to handle the estimated 138,000 people who turned out during a 10-week period to tour the ice caves.

To avoid another financial squeeze, the park proposed, and has gained approval, for a $5 per person fee for those 16 and older. An annual pass of $10 per person is available for those who want to view the ice caves more than once during the winter months. The $5 fee will be collected onsite at the Meyers Road parking area near Bayfield. The annual permit, however, must be purchased at park headquarters in Bayfield.  This is a cost recovery fee that will only be collected if there are ice caves, and will be dedicated to support the ice caves event.  During the ice caves event, the normal $3 per vehicle fee for the Meyers Beach parking area will be waived. 

Last year's unprecedented visitation received national and international attention.  The ice caves have become so popular that visitation of this magnitude may now be the norm, rather than the exception.  The ice caves event in 2014 brought in nearly $10 million in revenue to the local communities. 

During the ice cave event last winter, the majority of cars parked on Highway 13 and in temporary lots.  As a result, the park collected only $47,000, a fraction of what it actually cost to manage this event.  The Friends of Apostle Islands National Lakeshore contributed $16,000 to assure that toilets were brought in and kept pumped, the National Park Service Midwest Region contributed funding and many local partners and agencies contributed in-kind services and staff as well.

While the $5 fee will not cover all costs associated with this event, it will make strides in providing sufficient staff and infrastructure and allow the event to be sustainable into the future, park officials said.