Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Otter Tracks, Superior National Forest


 









Our Sunday drive this past weekend brought us deep into Superior National Forest.  It had snowed several inches Saturday night so the forest was incredibly beautiful.  One of the highlights of the day was seeing these relatively fresh otter tracks traversing this small pond.  Otters are one of my favorite animals and I always enjoy coming across their tracks. 

Saturday, March 27, 2021

Tracks and Shadows


 













Someone walked this way... and left some nice tracks for me to photograph!

Friday, March 26, 2021

Superior Sunsets


 









Sunsets over Lake Superior never fail to impress!  So thankful to live where I do. 



Spring Shadows in the Maple Forest


 









Wandered into the woods yesterday and found some really nice shadows...

Sunday, March 21, 2021

A nice night and a little bit of northern lights


 









There was a lot of buzz this weekend about the potential for northern lights and there certainly was quite a bit of activity, especially in the very early morning hours of Saturday. We didn't make it out Friday evening/Saturday morning but Saturday night and Sunday morning looked promising as well.  

So, we headed out at around 10 PM on Saturday evening and planned on staying out for at least a few hours. We drove out to a spot that I've been wanting to try in the local state forest and when we got there we could definitely see the lights glowing on the horizon and a few very faint pillars protruding up into the sky.  

That would be all the aurora activity we'd see for the night, however.  We stayed out until a little after 2:00 AM and while it was a beautiful night, the only aurora activity we saw was when we first arrived on location. Looks like we're in for some weather most of this coming week so it might be a while before we see clear skies again!

Saturday, March 6, 2021

Waiting for the Aurora


 









The Aurora forecast looked decent again last night and it looked like we could see a faint glow from our backyard so we decided to head up into the woods for a while and see what might transpire. While we never saw much for Aurora besides a nice glow on the horizon and a little bit of movement in the lights around 11:30, the night itself was sublime.  The stars looked amazing and everything was so still and quiet.  The best kind of night to be outside!  Here are a couple of shots while we waited for the lights in the comfort of the Jeep. 



Monday, March 1, 2021

Surprise Aurora!


 









Well, last night we had quite a nice surprise showing of the Aurora Borealis!  I totally was not expecting anything to happen last night.  We were all settled in for the night and on a whim I pulled out my phone to take a look at the Aurora Soft Serve News website. When the page loaded I was surprised to see the Kp index was at 6.33, which is storm level!  We shut off all the lights and took a look out one of the windows over the back yard. Sure enough, there was a green glow over Mt. Josephine!

It didn't take us long to decide to head out and watch the lights for a bit in the hopes that they would flare up into some pillars and dancing lights.  The lights never did pick up any more than a soft glow, but with the moonlight and the fast-moving clouds the resulting scene was nonetheless spectacular. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is just the beginning of what will hopefully be a good year for the northern lights!