Saturday Sunset over Grand Portage Bay

 

This evening's sunset was pretty amazing!  We had decided that today was going to be a "lazy Saturday" and that we weren't going to do our usual errands and sightseeing that we typically do on Saturdays.  Instead we just took it easy and hung around the house, which was a nice change of pace. As the day drew to a close, however, we did have to venture just down the road from the house once we saw the sky starting to light up at sunset. It ended up being one of the prettiest sunsets so far this winter!  

Fall Colors at Lower Hackberry

 

All this snow and cold weather lately has me thinking of warm days in the southwest. This photo is of the fall colors along the Lower Hackberry Canyon hike in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument of southern Utah. 

A Superior Afternoon

 

The early part of this afternoon along the Lake Superior shoreline sure was beautiful.  Despite the brutal wind, the blue sky and puffy clouds made for some fun explorations of the ice-covered shore.  About an hour after this photo was made the sky had completely clouded over and not long after that the wind (which had already been nasty) picked up even more and it started to snow pretty hard. One of the reasons why we love living where we do... you never know what each day is going to bring. 

February Blizzard!

Today was a great day for plow photography!  The plows were certainly busy as heavy snow fell throughout most of the day.  At times it was coming down so thick I was amazed that I was still able to get sharp images of the trucks. My camera's autofocus kept catching the falling snow often making my backgrounds out of focus.  We sure do have a lot of snow this year, and it just keeps coming!

Blue Winter Sky over Little John Lake

 

A beautiful February afternoon overlooking Little John Lake near the eastern border of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Even in the depths of a harsh Minnesota winter there are places where the water doesn't freeze, making for intriguing views such as this. 

Stuck in slush

 

This past Friday was a deceptively beautiful day.  I say deceptively because at first glance upon seeing this photo of McFarland Lake you might think it was a calm and warm day. The reality is that the temperature was hovering right around zero degrees and the winds were gusting to 45 MPH. While I was relatively protected from the wind at the vantage point these photos were taken from, conditions out in the middle of the lake looked a bit worse. There were a couple of snowmobilers that were out there stuck in slush on the surface of the ice. I can't say that I would have wanted to be in their shoes. After a few minutes of watching them, however, they were able to free their sleds and went on their way. 

Rings around the Sun AND Moon today!

 

We spent most of the day today exploring the forest roads between Grand Portage and Grand Marais, ending our backroads journey with a stop in Grand Marais for a late lunch and some grocery shopping.  We got food from Hungry Hippie Tacos and drove over to the harbor to eat. When we pulled up to the view of the harbor, there was a huge ring around the sun. It was crazy beautiful. Right when we got out to take some photos, a large flock of gulls took flight and flew around over the lighthouse.  And, right now as I type this, there is a giant ring around the moon as well!  So cool. 

Plow Patrol

 

My original plan for today was to go snowshoeing but the wind was way too nasty for that to be enjoyable so instead I went on "plow patrol". I staged myself in several different areas to catch the plow trucks going by. I don't exactly know why but I love capturing photos of snow plows in action. The first photo shown here is a Minnesota Department of Transportation plow coming over the Mt. Josephine pass in Grand Portage.  I've been wanting to get this shot for a long time but it has never worked out until today.  Even today I had to sit and wait almost 30 minutes for him go by. Once he did, though, I got my shot!  I also captured a few other images of the MNDOT plows along various stretches of Highway 61. 

After photographing the MNDOT plows, I headed up the Arrowhead Trail to see how much snow was up there (as it turns out, there is a quite a lot of snow along the entire length of the Trail!). Just south of McFarland Lake I was able to stop at a pullout and capture the Cook County Highway Department grader going by. 

Photographing plow vehicles is, in a way, like photographing wildlife. The more time you invest in getting to know the plowing patterns and all the little places where you can pull off the road to safely photograph them, the more successful you'll be in getting good photos. Typically I pay attention to which side of the road has been plowed then I know it's only a matter of time (usually not too long) before the plow will come back the opposite way.  Once I find a good safe spot to park that has a photogenic view of the road and surrounding environment, I wait. Sometimes it only takes a few minutes and other times I'm waiting for quite a while. I also make a lot of these photos with a telephoto lens which can give the impression that I'm standing in the middle of the road or right in the path of the truck.  Rest assured, this is not the case. I'm always as safe as I can be when taking these photographs and never put myself in the path of the plow truck or other traffic. 

A touch of color in the Utah desert

 

The southwestern desert is full of surprises. During our trip to Utah last November we were excited to find this beautiful touch of fall color as we passed through a large wash. This was along our drive to Cathedral Valley in Capitol Reef National Park.  

Cotton Candy Sky

 

The clouds were so soft and beautiful the other day as the sun was setting... the way they looked reminded me of cotton candy. I like this line of Aspen trees and they made a great foreground to frame against this sweet sky. 

A real life snow globe

 

I've lost track of how many big snow storms we've had so far this winter. It seems as though we've been living in a real life snow globe. Yesterday's storm brought anywhere from 6 to 12 inches of new snow (there is typically more accumulation as you go inland away from Lake Superior).  At times throughout the day the visibility was as little as 50 feet or less due to the snow falling so heavily and being tossed around by the wind. As we explored an inland road we found this nice little forest scene which definitely made me think of being inside a snow globe. 

Star Wars Snow Reconnaissance Mission

It was another majorly snowy day in northeast Minnesota... so I decided to bring some Legos out and stage some shots.  I don't do this very often but when I do I have a lot of fun making photographs like these!

Snowshoe Afternoon

Today started off kind of cold, gray and windy but by early afternoon the wind had died down to almost nothing and the temperature was warm enough to go for a nice snowshoe hike. A couple of friends and I decided to take a hike along one of the local ridge tops overlooking Lake Superior.  It had snowed about two inches overnight and the new layer of snow made everything extra beautiful. 

Island Steam

 

Back to cold weather here again in northern Minnesota. Below zero last night and again tonight. Makes for beautiful conditions on Lake Superior.