Picture Perfect day for a paddle!

Yesterday Jessica and I spent the morning paddling the shoreline of Esther Lake up the Arrowhead Trail in northeast Minnesota. It was a spectacular morning to be on the water and as we were making our way back to the boat ramp these postcard-perfect clouds were rolling in, making for some beautiful scenes to photograph.

Milky Way over Cascade River

The other night while we were photographing the Northern Lights, we looked to the south and were treated to another incredible view, the lights of the Milky Way Galaxy stretching up over the river. I'm not sure which was more impressive... the dancing lights of the Aurora to the north, or the glowing ribbon of the Milky Way to the south. Either way, it made for one spectacular sky!

Cascade River Aurora

Northern Lights over the Cascade River where it crosses The Grade near Grand Marais, MN. Last night my friend Roger and I were out looking for the Northern Lights and were disappointed by the heavy cloud cover and rainfall that dominated the early part of the evening. Eventually, though, the clouds parted and treated us to some incredible Aurora viewing. A couple of days ago there were a couple of Coronal Mass Ejections that left the sun and were headed straight at Earth. At first spaceweather.com was saying when the CME's hit our atmosphere they did NOT trigger any geomagnetic storms. After the initial impact, however, the arrival of the CME's compressed Earth's magnetic field and lit up Auroras around both poles.

Glen Avon Falls, Beaver River

Taken last Wednesday on our way home from Duluth. We took a short detour off Highway 61 and headed up to Glen Avon Falls on the Beaver River. This was only my second time visiting this location, and I can't wait to go back and see it when the water is higher. It is a spectacular section of the river with lots of photographic possibilities.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


I had a lot of fun with my 100-400mm lens taking shot after shot of this particular spot in the river. It was at the bottom of one of the many cascades that make up Glen Avon Falls. Each shot was so different from the one before, amazing how infinite the patterns of water can be when you freeze the action like this!

Evening at Esther Lake

Last Sunday night we went for a drive to a local lake to check on a tip that I had gotten about a Loon nest. We did not find the nest, but we did see the Loons out in the lake. We were also treated to a beautiful sky over Esther Lake. I thought the sunset was going to be spectacular but by the time the sun went down the clouds had moved in too far and the sky was completely gray. Oh well! The pre-sunset show was just as nice :-)

Early Summer Morning, Two Island River

Yesterday morning on my way to see the Herons I stopped for some photography along Two Island River just south of Tofte, MN. I've always wanted to stop along this river and after countless times over the years driving right past, I finally took the time to stop. There are some beautiful rapids and gentle cascading waterfalls such as this just above the highway. A little further upstream a nice taller waterfall plunges into a pool at the base of a small cliff. All in all I had a blast photographing this short section of the river and I can't wait to stop there again!

Great Blue Heron Family

Some of you may remember that almost a month ago I posted some pictures from a visit to a Great Blue Heron rookery. Yesterday I visited the rookery again and WOW how the babies have grown! On my last visit we only saw a couple of babies and only their heads stuck out above the nests. This time, the babies were a lot more visible because they were a LOT bigger! As far as I could tell, all but one or two of the nests had 3 babies in it. That means there are about 45 young Herons in this rookery.