Super Skier

We enjoyed another awesome day of skiing yesterday on the Central Gunflint Ski Trails!  While the weather this winter has made it difficult to find places to ski, it has also made skiing much more comfortable than the past two winters.  We are definitely getting spoiled by the temperatures this year.  Yesterday we enjoyed temperatures of 22-23 degrees during our 3-hour ski.  Very nice!  As always, the trails surrounding Bearskin Lodge and Golden Eagle Lodge are amazing and great fun, as you can see from this photo of Jessica cruising one of the downhill sections.  I used a slow shutter speed to make the trees blurry as we skied past them, giving this photo more of an "action" feel.  Looks like we're in for some colder temperatures beginning this weekend, so if you want to enjoy a nice warm ski better get out and do it in the next couple of days!

January Sunset - Grand Marais, Minnesota

After a fun-filled day of wave watching on the Lake Superior shoreline, we were treated to one of the best sunsets I've ever seen.  The clouds lit up like fire and stayed that way for a long time.  The shape of the clouds was really interesting too.  The awesome sky combined with the rough waters of the lake made for quite the scene. I can't imagine the day could have ended any better than this!

Ka - BOOM!

The lighthouse and wave lovers are gonna like this one!  I made this photograph yesterday morning in Grand Marais, MN during the height of a strong blow on Lake Superior.  The winds were blowing in from the southwest and the wave watching was glorious!  I stood on the shoreline for about 4 hours yesterday trying to capture big waves such as this.  There were plenty of big waves, but only once about every 15 minutes or so would one explode up into the air like this.  I got extra lucky and captured a gull flying by just as this wave blew up behind the lighthouse.  I hope you enjoy viewing this photo as much as I enjoyed making it!

Fuzzy Mink

I'm not sure what this little animal was after, but it was trying to dig through the hard packed snow on a roadway within the Superior National Forest.  It was so intent on what it was doing that I was able to sneak up to within 20 feet of it to take its picture.

Cross-Country Paradise!

You would never know it by looking at the Minnesota shoreline of Lake Superior right now, but it is in fact a winter wonderland in northern Minnesota.  Especially up along the Gunflint Trail, where they have plenty of snow.  Almost everywhere you look along the Gunflint the trees are covered with snow.  It is white pretty much everywhere you look!  And, it has been that way for at least a couple of weeks.  

The initial snow that fell up there was very wet and must have been followed by some pretty cold temperatures, as it is literally stuck to the trees.  Often after a snow storm we have wind and that wind will knock most of the snow from the trees.  But, that hasn't happened yet.  The wind hasn't been strong enough to knock the stubborn snow from the trees. It sure makes for a beautiful environment, especially when you can get out on some skis or snowshoes!  

This photo was made on New Year's Day on the Bearskin Lodge trails.  First tracks of the new year!  Do yourself a favor and take a drive up the Gunflint.  Bring your skis or snowshoes and go on an adventure in the woods.  You won't be disappointed!  Hats off to the staff at the resorts for getting out and working hard to clear the trails.  Thanks to that heavy snow, countless trees and branches were bent over the trails, completely blocking the route in many places.  Thanks to their hard work we are able to get out and enjoy the beautiful trails!

Just in case you're wondering, this is what a lot of the trails looked like before the crews got out to clear them:

The Power of the Wind

Here is another Lake Superior wave photo to bring in the new year.  This photo was captured in Tofte, MN from the public water access.  The waves sure were crashing into the shore in an impressive way and I had a blast capturing them with the camera!  I loved the way the wind was pushing the spray back from the crest of this wave.  

Lake Superior Rip Curl

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a fun and safe New Year's Eve.  Here is a photo from earlier this week, a very rough day on Lake Superior where I had a lot of fun photographing the waves as they approached the shoreline.  There were a few spots where the waves would develop these beautiful rip curls for a split second before the wave broke.  It was a difficult moment to capture, as it only looked this way for an instant.  This was my best "curl capture" of the day.  Enjoy!