Autumn view of Grand Portage Bay from Mt. Rose

Our fall color season seemed to pass in the blink of an eye this year. I didn't do nearly the amount of fall color shooting that I've done in past years, but I did manage to get out and find some beautiful scenes to photograph. One of my favorite examples is this scene from the summit of the Mt. Rose hiking trail in Grand Portage National Monument. It was a windy day when I made this shot, and the lines of waves coming in off Lake Superior gave additional character to the water that I found intriguing. If you've never done the Mt. Rose trail, you should do it sometime. It's a beautiful hike with a very rewarding (as you can see here) view from the summit.

Mt. Maude Aurora

Grand Portage is sitting beneath a thick blanket of clouds right now, but I am optimistic that the clouds will part later this evening and we will get a glimpse of the Auroras that they say MAY be happening tonight. I definitely need an Aurora fix... the last really good ones I was able to photograph were in mid-July. I've seen a few since then, but they weren't anything to write home about. They also occurred during a full moon so they were difficult to see and even more difficult to photograph. Keeping my fingers crossed for a good opportunity tonight! In the meantime, today I was going through some more Aurora shots from last year and found several that I hadn't worked up yet. Here's one from the night of September 10, 2011.

Leaning Tree

Here's a discovery from one of our recent fall color outings... I'm always on the lookout for interesting and uniquely shaped trees with the idea in mind of photographing them silhouetted against the night sky. I think this one could work quite well in that respect. I got lucky with the clouds in this shot, as I spotted the tree while driving down a Cook County backroad and only had a few moments to stop and photograph it. This tree is still living, as it did have a few leaves on it, but I don't think it's going to live very much longer. It seems to be on its way out :-(

Eagle on a cliff

A couple of weeks ago we were driving along Highway 61 on our way to do the hike to Eagle Mountain, the highest point in Minnesota. As I was driving, Jessica was gazing out at Lake Superior when all of a sudden she exclaimed "There's an eagle sitting on that cliff!". Of course I had to turn the car around to check it out, since I didn't see it when we first drove by. As we slowly approached the view where she had spotted the bird, sure enough, there he was sitting on the edge of a small (approx. 20 foot tall) cliff overlooking the lake. It was such a strange sight. I've seen eagles on the beach before, mostly going after fish that have been recently cleaned by commercial fishermen. But, I've never seen one perched on a cliff like this. He sat there for a few more minutes before taking off and landing in the top of a nearby tree. The sighting of this bird was a great start to our day, and I took it as a good sign, since we were going to be hiking Eagle Mountain that day :-)

Eagle Mountain Hike

Above: The trail starts off in a rather enchanting evergreen forest.

Last week we hiked up Eagle Mountain, the highest point in Minnesota.  Despite having lived in Cook County my entire life, I had never done the hike before.  It was something I really wanted to do, considering other recent "firsts" for me in the local area (hiking Devil Track River, visiting Thompson Falls on the Cascade River).  The trail to Eagle Mountain is 7 miles round-trip and for the most part is a very rugged, rocky trail.  We did the round-trip hike in just over 5 hours, including several stops along the way to take photos, and about a half-hour snack break at the summit. 



Before too long, you cross the line and from this point on the hike is within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Even though this is not known as a fall color hike, we did see a lot of nice color in the underbrush along the trail.

A few boardwalks that cross some bogs and marshes along the way give the trail some nice variety in the scenery.

Lots of color along this portion of the trail! Photo by Jessica Barr

Clouds over Whale Lake - Photo by Jessica Barr

Photographing the clouds over Whale Lake - Photo by Jessica Barr

Photographing the view from the summit - Photo by Jessica Barr

Although not the highest point on Eagle Mountain, this location offered the best "overlook" view.

Jess checking out the survey marker designating the highest point on the mountain at 2,298.1 feet.

Foggy autumn morning on Swamp Lake

This past Saturday we got up early to catch the morning light over Swamp Lake and photograph the (hopefully) awesome fall colors. On the drive up the mountain the colors were FANTASTIC but when we got to the top and looked down at the surrounding ridges we quickly noticed that the leaves in the valley below us were already past their peak color. That didn't really matter, though, because the fog stole the show. I've seen plenty of morning fog this time of year on the lake, but never this thick. It spread for miles and miles beyond the lake. We had about half an hour to view the lake and surrounding trees before the fog enveloped us. Once we were surrounded by fog we headed back down under the tree canopy to enjoy the fall colors up close and personal.

Spruce Tree Moon and September Aurora

Last night's display of the Aurora Borealis was mostly overpowered by the light of the full moon, but for a brief period around 11 PM the lights exploded and were easily visible over the light of the moon. This photo was made right in my yard over the top of a spruce tree next to my house. I composed the photo so the moon was behind the top of the tree. I can only imagine how much more powerful these lights would have appeared if this had been a moonless night. Even so, I do very much like this photo and I think the moonlight adds some nice additional atmosphere to the overall feel of the image.