Further Down River

A little further down river, in Jay Cooke State Park, the river rages.

October Gift

We don’t often get temps above seventy in October but, when we do, it behooves us to get outside and enjoy it. I choose to spend a few hours at Jay Cooke State Park enjoying the sound of the St. Louis River and waiting for the sunset.

Ledge Rock Abstracts #3

The third installment of my interpretation of ice patterns on the rocks at Gooseberry Falls State Park.

Welcome to the Future

2020…it sounds very futuristic.  In many ways, compared to what I’ve grown up with, it is the future, just not quite the one I was expecting.  I raised myself on a steady diet of science fiction books and films, so I thought I would have a flying car by now.  Sure, we have computers for home use that are amazing, smart phones, smart watches and even Artificial Intelligence, but where is my flying car?  We can video chat with anyone around the world, we can travel long distances in short amounts of time, (if you don’t count going through security) but no flying car!
Oh well, here’s to the future as it is and a toast to what the future will look like for us photographers.  And leading off the new year, here’s an image that caught my attention while hiking along the rocky beach in Split Rock State Park in northern Minnesota.

I’m guessing that the log was flipped by wave action which reoriented the icicles.

Frozen (not the movie)

My stop at Gooseberry Falls State Park gave me the unusual opportunity to have the falls all to myself, a very rare experience.  I guess it pays to get there early and be willing to be out in single digit temps.

Adjustments

For the fourth year in a row, I had made a plan to take part in the “Opt Outside” movement started by REI.  It has grown over the years to include many other businesses.  In Minnesota, all the state parks are open to the public for free on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
However, as the day drew nearer, I became concerned about the weather due to the extended forecast calling for freezing rain on Friday and I had hoped to travel up the north shore of Lake Superior to visit Cascade River State Park.  In the event travel wasn’t possible on Friday, I chose to take my trip on the day before Thanksgiving and opted to only go as far as Temperance River State Park.  I also made stops at Gooseberry Falls State Park and Tettegouche State Park.
As it turned out, not only did it not rain till much later in the day Friday, the temps were in the low forties.  Over the three days around Thanksgiving I managed to get in three very nice hikes. The day up the shore, through the woods and on the shore of Park Point and on the Superior Hiking Trail above Duluth.  Not once did I think about wanting to go shopping!  (Except for some thoughts of getting some new hiking boots.)

Here are a few memories from the last three days.  If you stare at the black & white image for awhile, it morphs in to all kinds of strange things.

 

Winter Picnic?

Not exactly picnic weather, but lovely for some XC skiing.

Rice Lake State Park near Owatonna, MN.

Sony RX100 V, ISO 125, 10mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec, twiddled a bit in Adobe Lightroom CC.

A Piece of Rock

As I previously mentioned, Tettegouche is one of my favorite Minnesota state parks and one of its most famous landmarks was the stone arch.  On one of our trips to the park,  my wife and I had the chance to kayak through the arch.  However, in late August of 2010, the bridge portion of the landmark collapsed into the lake and left behind a stack rather than an arch.  Because of its location, this part of Lake Superior’s north shore is often subject to large waves from storms and when that happens during frigid winter weather, the blowing spray can create unusual ice formations along the rocky shore and on the trees.

In case you haven’t figured it out, the three bottom images are from the same day, but from opposite sides.  The first two are looking south from Shovel Point, the Watcher is looking north.

The Moody Lake

Tettegouche State Park on Lake Superior’s north shore is one of my favorite places to visit in Minnesota. With the addition of the new wayside rest area, the park is open to everyone traveling along the north shore.  The park offers fantastic views of the lake, miles of hiking trails, camping and the highest waterfall contained within the borders of Minnesota.  But the lake is the big draw and no matter the season, its personality is always on display.

Minolta DiMAGE S404, ISO 64, 7.38mm, f/ 6.7, 1/250 sec, Nov. 20, 2005