Colorful Lake Michigan

Certain mornings play with Lake Michigan's colors, and this was certainly one of those mornings. As we approached the end of the trail, which was once a road leading to homes and a beach access, we stood at the edge of the dune that overlooked the beach below. The dune is around 100 feet tall here, but with no people on the beach for reference, it looks as if I am standing on the beach itself. The clouds cast shadows on the water, changing the color of the waters, and in addition, the sand is kicked up and circulated in the water, creating some deeper brown colors along the shore. While this coloration is not really unusual, it changes from moment to moment and often can't be seen from the beach itself. Following what was once California Avenue, we found the end of the road - which led right off the dune to the beach below. I remember walking this road and Valley Drive when there were still homes on them. And often, after the homes were razed, we would follow a path along the top of the dunes right at the lakefront. This path has since been washed into Lake Michigan - but not because people walked on it as the park service would seem to want you to believe. People do much less damage to the dunes when they follow a path or trail than they do if you block off the traditonal paths. Some will simply walk around the sign or barricade, creating more damage as they walk around. Lake Michigan eroded the dunes here, not people walking on the dunes.

Last Sunset of Winter

 

 Generally, we visit the beach in the mornings and view the rising or low morning sun, but on the last day of winter, we stopped off in the evening. What's most unusual is the lighting, it's coming from the opposite direction; we're used to seeing it on the other side of the dunes! 

The last day of winter 2021 was relatively warm, and followed a couple of days of high winds. A little beach erosion was evident as we hiked to Kintzele Ditch, some full sized trees have fallen to the beach from the top of the dunes as they were undermined by waves. In the background, you can see the large pile of sand that was delivered to the beach last Fall, it is slowly breaking down as well. The intent for that is to be spread a bit along the shore this Spring, so the waves are helping with that. 

 It was nice to see people enjoying the beach again, although there were only a few, with the sun and the warmer temperatures, things are certainly looking up. Not only does it feel like Spring, now it is Spring!

The Dormant Dunes

 

 In late winter, the plant life on the dunes is still dormant and brown, waiting for a few more days of warm weather and rain to kickstart the spring green-up. Even in this dormant state, the woods and grasses are inviting, and from this elevation, they seem to go on forever. I can imagine hiking down these dunes through the woods and clearings, and walking for miles. Unfortunately, that's not allowed here, and much of the wooded areas around the park are private property. 

 It's amazing how calm and peaceful it is when you stop and look around. A large city is just up the shore, and other smaller residential areas surround the dunes on three sides, but aside from the occasional train horn and air plane, nature is all you hear. When Lake Michigan is churning, only the waves can be heard, but on this morning, it was only birds and the squeaking of the sand beneath our feet.

   

 Turning and looking in the opposite direction, more dunes and woods can be taken in. The views from this dune are quite expansive, and seem to go on and on. Tucked away between the dense bare trees are some homes in the distance, those of nearby towns such as Pines, Dune Acres, and Beverly Shores. They're all within walking distance of Lake Michigan and in such a picturesque, rolling dune setting. So close to the National Park, and also so close to the once booming steel industry of Northern Indiana. That industry is waning, and what remains is mostly hidden from the view of the homes by the dunes and the woods.

Morning on Top of the Dune

 

It's almost spring - and it certainly felt like it at the lakefront. Weather forecasts were calling for high temperatures in the low 40s, but even early in the day, the warmth from the sun drove temps into the 50s. Couple that with a rather strenuous hike up the sandy dunes, and jackets are optional. The bright sunlight illuminated the dunes, and made the short layer of fog in the distance blend in with the horizon. 

Looking at the horizon, a superior mirage was evident in a few spots over Lake Michigan. This type of mirage stretches the objects on the horizon vertically, and sometimes turns them upside down! Objects normally not seen because of the curvature of the earth can be seen hovering above the water upside down. On this day, we didn't see anything so dramatic, but some areas of sand in the distance were stretched into what appeared to be buildings on the horizon.

   

 It's interesting to see just how fast the sand dunes warm up in March. The sand is very warm to the touch just two weeks after being frozen solid. We looked around and found a few small footprints in the sand, most likely from some type of insect. We also encountered a snake warming itself in the sun. Life is once again beginning to return to the dunes - and that includes people, we ran into quite a few along the beach.

The Thawing Ice Falls

 

 On what we knew would be our last visit to the frozen waterfalls of Matthiessen State Park, we were lucky enough to find the two waterfalls in this canyon still frozen. The other more popular and easier to access waterfalls were no longer frozen, so these were exciting to find still somewhat frozen. While not quite complete, and missing the intricate ice patterns that form when the weather is very cold, they remained interesting to explore. 

 Generally, we could climb behind the ice and enter the caves formed by the ice, but with the warm temperatures and melting ice, it was very wet, and a little hazardous if a huge chunk of ice decided to break loose and fall. While the ice looks a bit undefined and dirty as it melts, the running water provides a fun challenge to capture - especially when you leave your tripod behind and need to attempt a slow shutter photograph holding the camera.

   

 This waterfall is one where we usually explore the cavity behind the ice, and it's tall enough to stand up inside, and about 12 feet tall to the first major cascade on the rockface. We did head inside but were immediately soaked with water dripping from above. We were already soaked to the knees from crossing the swollen stream at the head of the canyon, we didn't need to get our gear wet as well.

   

 After crossing the stream, we had a narrow strip of ice to walk along to reach the waterfalls. This is often a shallow creek in the warm months, so generally only about 3 inches of our boots get wet, and in this area, only the soles. Mud is usually the normal in this section, so the remaining ice was a welcome sight, almost like a white carpet leading us to the frozen falls.

Approaching the Dual Waterfalls

We hoped to see at least one frozen waterfall on our trip to Matthiessen State Park, in northern Illinois. Unseasonably high temperatures would surely melt the icefalls, and as we hiked past the lower dell overlook, we could hear a lot of water flowing over Cascade Falls below us. Certain all of the waterfalls were gone, we made the hike across the swollen stream to the small canyon past Cedar Point. This canyon typically has two waterfalls, and in winter, they freeze to form ice caves. 

 As we made the first turn in the canyon, we could see the first fall was indeed still frozen. With some melt occurring, some of the intricate details were missing from the ice formations, and a lot of leaf debris could be seen in the ice and the snow on the canyon floor.

   

 The meltwater from the snow in the park was flowing over the icefalls, making it a bit difficult to access the falls, but more difficult to get behind them and into the ice caves. Careful not to walk under any of the hanging ice - for fear it would fall and crush us - we did manage to get inside the ice caves which were pouring with water. 

 Because we had to walk through knee-deep water in the stream to access these waterfalls, we shared the canyon with only one other visitor. Surprisingly, walking through the cold water wasn't so bad, the water in your boots warms up a bit after a few minutes.

Lake Falls

 

A full wall of ice just days earlier, Lake Falls is flowing once again thanks to the large amount of meltwater flowing into the lake above the falls. Hiking through Illinois' Matthiessen State Park during winter yields quite a few frozen waterfalls -at least six. On this visit, they were in various stages of melting, some completely gone, and others, half way thawed. The melting increased the amount of water in the upper and lower dells, which in turn, destroyed more of the icefalls.

Not only is the ice melting, but to get to the frozen waterfalls is much more difficult if you wish to stay warm and dry. The paths for at least two of these falls were under at least a foot of flowing water. We decided to visit them anyway, and walked through the cold water; our feet were cold for about 10 minutes as the 35 degree water flooded our boots. But after that, they remained a rather comfortable temperature as our body heat warmed up the water in our boots. Even if our feet stayed cold, it was worth the effort to see these falls once again.

 

Generally Lake Falls is a bit more accessible, and flows a bit more gentle, but this time we couldn't get too close to the falls without getting ourselves and our gear sprayed with water. Many of the interesting logs that fell into the canyon have disappeared over the years; these were often covered in intricate ice formations, but no longer. The stream is filled with small cascades of water most only a foot tall like the one in the foreground of the top image. These provide great elements in the landscape, and give so many possible compositions. 

 I hiked this time without my tripod, so these images, which were taken with a slow shutter of 1/6th of a second, were taken handheld with no support. Without a tripod, it gets a bit tricky to get sharp images at that speed.

Frozen French Canyon

Following a week of warm weather, we decided to visit Starved Rock State Park once again, before all of the frozen waterfalls were melted. On our last trip in the very cold weather, we visited the waterfalls that generally have the most intricate ice formations - knowing they would soon be gone. On this hike, we saw the melting icefalls that we figured would still be somewhat frozen, and we were right.

These waterfalls tend to stay frozen for a bit longer than the fragile falls in LaSalle Canyon because they're thicker and in more shaded canyons. French Canyon is one of those very shady locations and generally doesn't have a huge amount of water flowing into the canyon. A heavy flow of water quickly melts the ice formations, while a more gentle one cascades over, under, or around the ice.

 
This canyon is generally a bit tricky to access when the stream is flowing (if you don't want wet feet), but in winter, it's extremely slippery and difficult to access. Park staff at the visitor's center have told us time and time again that it's not worth even trying to get into French Canyon in the winter - it's too dangerous. The stream flows directly on the portion of the canyon floor that is used for walking, so plenty of ice forms in this area. Without ice cleats on your boots, it's next to impossible to safely walk up into this canyon. Because we've been here many times before, we had our cleats with us.

 
 

 In the photo above, you can see just how frozen the canyon floor was. No place to hold on to, so you absolutely need ice cleats, and even then, if there is snow on top of the ice, or if the cleats hit rock, you will still slide. I would hate to fall here, not only would you get wet, but you would probably continue sliding 30 or 40 feet down into the pool of water at the entrance to the canyon. I don't know how deep that water is, but you would certainly have a difficult time climbing out, and a very cold walk back to the car. 

 The recent high temperatures has created quite a bit of melt water, in fact, it flooded the canyon and kept us from walking too far in. We were already wet to the knees from walking through the stream at Matthiessen Park, but we weren't too certain how deep this water was, so it was best to keep out of the flooded canyon.

   

The melt water did allow for some very interesting colors and a nice reflection of the 40 foot tall frozen waterfall. This waterfall doesn't freefall into the canyon, it cascades over the stepped rock formations, so I think it's one of the more interesting waterfalls of the park.

Every day the warm weather eats away at the ice in all 18 canyons of Starved Rock, so if you hope to see some frozen waterfalls, it's best to visit very soon, or you will need to wait until next winter. Bring ice cleats even if you think the trails are clear - you will need them - sometimes into April.

The Thawing Shelf Ice

 

 Just a few days earlier, Lake Michigan was filled with ice as far as the eye could see. Last week, we hiked through thigh-deep snow in this same spot to view the ice mounds on the beach, this week, they're almost gone. Only a couple of days of 40 degree weather and the floe ice melts quickly, and soon, all of this ice will be gone as well - it's meteorological spring already. 

 While our goal was to hike to Kintzele Ditch last week and this week, we approached from a different access this time - Central Beach. Closed for quite some time because of erosion and well water problems with the remodeled washrooms, it's a nice change to access the beach quickly via our old standby trails.

   

 The remnant ice took on the look of the arctic, like small icebergs floating just off shore. But these mounds stood at the bottom of the lake and rose up a few feet above the water. 

Some years, these ice mounds can rise 15 feet above the water - as high as the waves can throw the ice chunks when they pound the shore. This year didn't produce the usual number of mounds or ice volcanoes, but it was pretty none-the-less.

   

 Just as it does when the ice forms, when it melts, it creates interesting structures on the beach. This cove is being enlarged little by little as the waves move floe ice into and out of the ice shelf. The beach was lined with similar structures as we hiked the shore to Kintzele Ditch, each unique in size and shape. 

My only regret was not having our kayaks- it would be amazing paddling in and out of these small coves near the ice mounds. Maybe next year.