Milky Way over Esther Lake

Grand Portage State Forest, MN

There are few pleasures in this world greater than standing under a sky filled with the stars of the Milky Way.  Do yourself a favor, find a dark sky and bask in the glow of the stars.  Star glow is good for the soul.  

Hollow Rock, Aurora Explosion

Here's another previously unreleased photo of the unforgettable night of aurora that occurred on June 23, 2015.  

Lake Superior Lights

I'm working on some photos for a northern lights book project, so I've been going through photos from past aurora events that I never worked on.  This one is from June 23, 2015 and is overlooking Lake Superior at Hollow Rock Resort in Grand Portage, MN. 

Outback, Ice Cream Truck and The Milky Way

Just a quiet night under the stars with my bike and my car :-)

Riding Lower Burner of Stovetop

For my days off this week I headed down to Duluth to visit my brother and hopefully get some riding in with him on the Mission Creek trails.  Unfortunately it rained the night I got down there as well as the following morning.  The trails at Mission Creek are mostly clay surface, so they take awhile to dry out.  Consequently those trails were not open at all while I was in Duluth.  

Piedmont, however, opened up earlier than anything else so that's where we went.  A significant portion of the trails we rode were very rocky and rough going.  But, after a while we popped out onto the Duluth Traverse, and this section of trail looked new!  I find the singletrack trails to be incredibly photogenic especially when they are in a beautiful forest such as this.  Looking at this photo it's hard to believe that you're right in the middle of the city!

North Woods Aurora

Well, the aurora forecast didn't really pan out to the extent they were forecasting last night. That being said, the lights were out but they were faint and were just above the northern horizon.  As we stood and stared at the glow in the northern sky we were serenaded by the chorus of several frogs croaking around the edges of the lake.  The fog was intriguing as well as it slowly but steadily drifted in and out of the area where we standing along the edge of the water.  It was another unforgettable night in the north woods of Minnesota!

Firefly Night

I was out driving around last night between 10 P.M. and Midnight when I stopped at this meadow on Hollow Rock Creek and noticed all the lightning bugs flying around!  Seems like there have been a lot of them out in the past week or two.  I stood in this location for over an hour watching the fireflies moving around the meadow and the clouds moving across the sky.  Frogs were croaking the entire time down along the creek as well.  So many interesting and beautiful things in this world!   

Rain Squall at Sunset, Red Rock Point

After making the photograph of the storm over Hollow Rock Creek, I drove down to the Lake Superior shoreline to catch the storm clouds out over the lake. Red Rock Point ended up being the perfect location for some really cool clouds and some fog floating over the horizon.  

Sunset Storm, Hollow Rock Creek

Last night I was hoping to get some work done on our plot at the community garden but just as I arrived at the garden it started pouring rain. Rather than get soaking wet gardening in the rain, I decided to take a short drive.  I only went about a mile and was passing the Hollow Rock Creek meadow on Old Highway 61 when I saw this incredible sky.  It had mostly quit raining but the mosquitoes were quite bad.  Luckily I only needed a few moments to make this photograph before continuing on down the road.  

Snapping Turtle

It's that time of year again where the Snapping Turtles are coming out of the Pigeon River to lay their eggs.  I saw this one as I was leaving work last night.  Every year they lay eggs in the ground right on the lawn near our visitor center.  They are always such fascinating creatures to see.  

Polyphemus Moth

It's that time of year again when all the beautiful moths show up on the side of our building at work!  Almost every day there are at least a couple of beauties out there.  So far we've seen a few of these Polyphemus Moths, a few Luna Moths and several Sphynx Moths.  Even with a concrete backdrop these creatures are incredibly beautiful!

Backyard Chipmunk

Somehow I forgot to post this picture back when I took it in late May.  This is the resident chipmunk that lives in our backyard.  One day when I was doing some chores out by the shed he was hanging around in a patch of dandelions which made for some nice photos.  Sure is a cute little bugger!

High Falls Flow

Grand Portage State Park, MN

Compare the water flow of this photo of High Falls (taken June 30th) to the one I posted yesterday (taken June 23rd).  Quite a bit more water running over the falls now, thanks to several inches of rain in the past week!