Following weeks of below freezing weather, Lake Michigan received a brief reprieve from the punishing February weather. With the rise in temperature, the floe ice on Lake Michigan has begun to move around, exposing liquid water between the floes and the shelf ice. Viewing the lighthouse from two miles across the water at Mt. Baldy, part of the Indiana Dunes National Park, seems more like the arctic than Indiana. Of course, most of the lakefront in winter appears arctic or even alien - especially to those who only head out to the beach in warm weather.
Almost every visit I make in the winter, when I come across people from other states, or those who generally don't visit in winter, I hear them gasp in surprise when they make their way over the dune and see the lake from the first time. Elevated between 50 and 100 feet above the beach, the views of the rolling shelf ice are spectacular, much better than the view from the beach. Of course when you're on the beach, it's like another world too, as you walk between the sand dunes and the 15 foot tall mounds of ice; it's like walking through a valley in winter.
This view from the beach level shows the lighthouse, again about two miles away, but though the mounds of ice. These mounds look like frozen waves, particularly if you look closely in front of the lighthouse. For most of the walk along the shore, you can't see any open water or the horizon due to the tall piles of ice, but every so often you can steal a view between the shelf ice. Even standing on a washed up log gives you a new perspective of the extent of the ice.
For this type of viewing, Mt. Baldy, near Michigan City, is your best bet for legal higher altitude viewing. Further west is West Beach, which also allows climbing of dunes in marked areas and trails.
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