two directions, two seasons

Such was the visual appearance yesterday of arguably one of the most beautiful places in the Upper Midwest, Grand Sable Lake and Grand Sable Dunes in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

I took a ride yesterday to visit the Agate Lady, Karen Brzys, in Grand Marais Mi. She runs the Gitche Gumme Agate Museum, full of jaw dropping agates and other minerals. Also in the museum is a wonderful historical display from the life and heritage of Axel Neimi,original owner of the museum and mentor to Brzys. This is a must see if you make the trip to Grand Marais.

After our visit, she treated me to a portion of a regular hike she takes in what is basically her "backyard", the Grand Sable Dunes.

Grand Sable Lake, April 15, 2009

Looking south over Grand Sable Lake, you could see a solid dirty ice cover yet, winter's last gasp (hopefully! you never know in these parts). Snow wise, the woods are still heavy with it. Still, a few seasonal roads have too much snow cover to be open yet.

Grand Sable Dunes

Hiking in the dunes proceeding north towards Lake Superior(recommended only for those that understand their limits) the sand was soft and warm, with a neon blue sky and sun a blazin'. It's easy to feel like an ant out here, in the Sahara of Northern Michigan. Wind temps were perfect for hiking at around 45 degrees or so, then when you got out of the wind and in the direct sun at the bottom of a dune, it was downright summer like with warm sun and sand. Just a wonderful day to have the opportunity to take in such a beautiful place, leg exhaustion and sandy shoes well worth it.

Where there's a will, There's a wave

Still thinking about that last surf trip in the dead of winter, on the coldest day of winter to date, with open water waning on Lake Superior. The water was right on the edge of freezing, as evidenced by the growing surface ice. It was interesting how the surface ice that was forming,from a surfer's point of view, acted as kelp beds in turning the water to glassy condition, something you rarely see on the lakes. The two choices of surfable waves that day were blown out waves at Hurricane River, had bigger waves, but a nasty sidewind, -or- sheltered Grand Sable Dunes,smaller waves, but awesomely glassy. With such positive stoke in the air, on this day it was Grand Sable. The only way down to the waves was a 300 ft slippery steep slope down the frozen dune of Log Slide-can't wait to get back to this spot again under more forgiving conditions.

Grand Sable waves- more pics from the Grand Sable surf trip available at a later date.

birdseye view

Can you guess what this is?


It's the big lake, viewed from a 300 foot tall sand dune, Grand Sable Dunes. This time of year, Grand Sable could be considered back country as the only way in is 5 miles via snowmobile. That's exactly what we did yesterday, was take a ride in to the dunes, with temps topping out at about zero.


LOG SLIDE: This caution sign states that the dunes are 300ft in elevation at this spot, very steep, and at this time of year, frozen solid, with a 500 foot hike from bottom to top.

Grand Sable Dunes with the sun low in the sky-to see it covered in white was a refreshingly beautiful view. Tommorrow, I will be sharing an account and slideshow of what I consider an extreme backcountry "adventure" that few would care to attempt.