It was another snowy day in Grand Portage today. The forecast was only calling for a half inch to inch of new snow, but we easily got 3 or 4 times that. Unlike previous snow days, this one was extra beautiful with large, fluffy flakes and almost no wind. It was, as I like to call it, storybook snow.
A few photos from a recent snowshoe outing. I love the forest in the winter! The beauty may bit a bit more subtle than other seasons but is impressive nonetheless.
It was a rare non-windy day today so I decided to break out the skis and spend the afternoon on them. I skied up to the Pigeon River to check out Partridge Falls, which looks like a mountain of ice right now. The weather was just about perfect for skiing... about 7 degrees and absolutely no wind! Hopefully we start getting more days like this.
Close-up shot of an ice luminary that Sarah made using some "decorations" from around the yard.
I'd be curious to see what the stats are as far as how often and how severe the winds have been this winter compared to past winters. It sure seems like we've had a lot more wind than usual. Many days it seems the scenes I encounter make it look like we're living north of the Arctic Circle.
With all the wind we've been having lately there's been a lot of water spray from Lake Superior coating things that are close to the shoreline. This past weekend on our grocery run to Grand Marais we checked out a couple of areas around the harbor where the ice was covering everything within 20 to 30 feet of the water. The ice formations were fascinating and a lot of fun to photograph.
Well, today is another dreary gray sky day with SUPER high winds. A perfect chance to look back at an awesome snowshoe outing this past Saturday, where it was a much calmer day with a beautifully blue sky. We went to a local path that goes down to the Lake Superior shoreline where we saw cool ice piles that had formed from the incredibly high winds the day before. It never ceases to amaze me how the weather can be so violent one day and so calm the next day. The calm days seem few and far between this winter, so get out and enjoy them when they occur!
Minus 18 degrees this morning. Lake Superior is always so beautiful when the air is so cold.
We are most certainly in the depths of winter here in northeast Minnesota. We've received a lot of snow so far and lately it has been very cold. This is quite evident at Grand Portage State Park as High Falls is currently sporting a thick blanket of ice. The other day I ventured up to the falls and caught these really cool clouds streaking across the sky. The temperature was right around zero degrees Fahrenheit when these photos were made.
Long-time followers of my photography know that I love winter and one of the main reasons is all the various forms of ice that can be found throughout the season. One of the most interesting forms of ice that I've seen is the textured ice that often forms at the base of High Falls in Grand Portage State Park. As the spray from the waterfall lands on the snow, it freezes into all these little bumpy mounds of ice. Zooming in with a telephoto lens and making abstract images of this ice is a lot of fun. In the wide angle photo shown below, I've circled in red the area that is shown in the abstract image above.
Yesterday was quite the snow day with roughly about a foot of new snow accumulation. I love snow storms, I find them to be very photogenic. I made these photos before going to work yesterday, where I spent most of my shift plowing snow. At times the snow was falling so hard I would plow an area and 10 minutes later you couldn't even tell it had been plowed. By about 7:00 PM the snow had, for the most part, stopped falling. Then of course it got windy. It seems like it always gets really windy after a snow storm. I love the snowy part of a blizzard. The wind... not so much!
Sunset this past weekend in Grand Marais, MN. A couple of other photographers were out capturing the beautiful views as well. It was brutally windy and cold but so worth it to be out there. Once the sun hit that little spot of clear sky below the clouds and above the horizon, the ice began to glow with warm light. It only lasted a few minutes then the sun was below the horizon. These fleeting moments are often the most beautiful.
We are experiencing another blizzard today. Weather forecasters are saying we could have as much as a foot of new snow after today. Here's a photo from a few days ago when the weather was much nicer. A little sun and blue sky is always welcome in the depths of winter.
After photographing Chickadees all afternoon it was nice to walk down to the beach and catch a dramatic sunset to end the day.
This is my new favorite Chickadee photo. In addition to our normal bird feeder that is always out, Sarah had the idea to put out a bowl filled with sunflower seeds in the snow in our backyard. I spent most of the afternoon sitting out in the snow with my tripod and camera, capturing photos and videos. This is my favorite shot of the day.
The clouds over Pete's Island were really cool the other day. I love being able to look out the living room window and see this island whenever I want. It has such a distinctive shape and the view is different not only every day but throughout every day. The view is constantly changing and I love that.
Goblin Valley is definitely one of the most unusual places I've seen. It's a landscape unlike any other that I've ever explored. Hoodoo formations are everywhere and it's fascinating to wander through them. If you're traveling to Utah definitely put this on your list of places to see.
Minus 21 degrees Fahrenheit on the way to work this morning. Lots of sea smoke and a lot of ice forming on the lake this past week!
We sure have a lot of snow already this winter. Sometimes it seems like it's been snowing more often than not. This weekend we took a drive up the Gunflint Trail out of Grand Marais, MN and this row of snow-covered mailboxes really caught our eyes.
We took a drive up to Trail Center on the Gunflint Trail today and along the way we had the good fortune to see not one but two moose! It seemed to be a mother with a young one from last summer. We saw them both along our way up the trail and along the way back. We watched them for probably about 30 minutes total. They weren't very far from the road but the woods are very thick in that area which made them difficult to photograph. It sure was fun to watch them work their way around in the snow as they nibbled on the tree branches.
