February Ice

Late winter is one of my favorite times of the year. I always look forward to late February and early March with great anticipation. The reason for this is simple. I love ice. As March approaches, ice buildup on Lake Superior usually increases. This was true again this year, but not to the extent that I was hoping. We had very little ice coverage on the lake in February this year mostly due to above average temperatures. It simply wasn't getting cold enough for ice to form the way it usually does. We did, however, still have plenty of ice right along the shoreline.



There were a few times when ice did form farther out into the lake, and a handful of days where the wind was just right that it broke that ice into sheets and pushed it towards shore. One such day was this evening where I photographed these ice piles on the shoreline of Red Rock Beach in Grand Portage. A strong wind off the lake the previous night had pushed this ice into the shore, and created some nice (although not very tall) piles of ice. At any rate it made for a fun evening of photography. The ice was still being slowly pushed towards shore as I made these images... it groaned, creaked and popped as I walked along the shore. These sounds that are made by the ice are hauntingly beautiful.



A couple of days later, I was walking along the shoreline of Grand Portage Bay and found some other neat ice formations that were just begging to have their picture taken. There was one spot where a rather thick piece of ice had been pushed up onto the shore and as it was being pushed up it split into four pieces. There may not be as much ice as there has been in past years, but if you took the time to look you could still find some cool stuff!