Pictured Rocks

Went for a hike in Pictured Rocks yesterday. One thing is for sure. It's skeeter season. Since we live closer to the east side of the park, that's where I get to more frequently. You can see it all here, lighthouses included. It's amazing the diversity of natural features in that park, from the waterfalls and lakes to the huge sandstone cliffs, to the amazing dunes and pristine beaches that stretch for miles. The early spring wildflowers are at their peak and the trilliums are starting to turn pink. Miners beach is a very scenic place. The falls at the east end of the beach have a really neat sandstone texturing at the base of it, in which a lot of new sand has built up this year, covering a lot of this layered sandstone.
Pictured Rocks waterfall- anyone know if this falls has a name?

One of my fav hiking trails in the park also starts at this location and gets to the top of the huge sandstone cliffs relatively quickly. It's a place of solitude to be sure, but the initial hike up the big hill gets your heart pumping.
.hiking trail, pictured rocks national lakeshore

Winter thaw

Yep, it's here. A welcome mid winter thaw. Amazing, after daily snows that build snow drifts feet high, how quickly it can all melt when the temps go a little above freezing.
Everywhere I look now I see "ugly snow" look that comes with a nice warmup such as what we're experiencing today.
But I found a winter thaw pic that is interesting- it's out at Pictured Rocks looking out over the amazing hundreds of feet tall sandstone cliffs. I imagine the water gets so green like that due to the runoff from the sandstone cliffs and the waves stirring up that sediment. On closer look at the pic, I see big boulders laying on top of the thawing ice mountains. Makes me wonder if the cliff crumbled recently, as is common during the fall freeze and winter thaw. I might add, to hear a boulder that size falling off the cliff into the lake is a humbling experience to say the least, sounds like thunder. Kayakers beware especially in the early Spring when this kind of crumbling activity of the sandstone is at it's highest.

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.