Images from January

Since returning in early January from my trip out West, I really haven't been out with the camera much. I guess I took so many pictures on the trip that I needed a break from the camera for a while. I have been out a few times, but haven't taken very many images. One exception was an afternoon in late January, when I took a walk out along Artist Point in Grand Marais.





Artist Point is always a nice place to take a walk, but in the winter it can be especially beautiful. For one thing, on a day where the air temperature is right around zero degrees and there is a 20 mph wind out of the North, odds are you'll be the only one out there! In the winter, waves and spray from Lake Superior combined with the frigid air helps turn Artist Point into an icy paradise.





Above: Sometimes, frost patterns on windows can be mesmerizing!

One thing is for sure, you need to be very careful when hiking anywhere along the Lake Superior shoreline in the winter! With ice coating almost every inch of the ground, each step carries with it the potential for a dangerous tumble! Careful steps, though, reward one with some incredible sights. As I walked the loop trail around the point and along the harbor breakwall, the bushes and shrubs along the way were encased in ice. Each rock was covered in a thin layer of ice as well, with endless varieties of patterns and designs in the surface of the ice. I could have easily spent the remainder of the day out along Artist Point, but the brutal wind chill soon forced me back to my warm car.



Above: After my walk on Artist Point this incredible cloud was hanging over the lighthouse, the sun hiding behind it. I call this "Tornado Cloud"



A few miles inland from the lake, the scene was completely different. Thanks to a recent winter storm that gave us wet snow combined with rapidly dropping temperatures, the forest was covered in a blanket of snow that had literally frozen to the trees as it fell. Winter may be the harshest season in the north woods, but in many ways it is also the most beautiful.

Below: Sometimes luck shines on you... such as the day I went for a drive and saw this Fisher along the edge of the forest. Not a very common animal to spot in the wild, I feel very fortunate to have been able to capture an image such as this.