Agate Beach in Grand Marais … and Lake Superior Agates

Posted on by farlane

Agate Beach Treasures Neil Weaver Photography

Agate Beach Treasures, photo by Neil Weaver Photography

Karen “Agatelady” Bryzs of the Gitchee Gumee Museum in Grand Marais shares a ton of information about Lake Superior Agates, part of a worldwide family of semi-precious gemstones that naturally develop when an empty pocket inside a host rock fills in with microcrystals, forming a totally unique pattern:

Most Lake Superior agates formed in a rift zone approximately 1.2 billion years ago. Rift zones are cracks in the Earth’s surface out of which molten lava flowed. Today, there are still rift zones at the bottom of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The rift zone that created Lake Superior agates started in what is now northeast Kansas and continued northeast into what is now the western end of Lake Superior. This hot spot domed up lava several miles high and eventually choked itself off. If it would have continued, it could have split the North American continent in half.

She offers some tips from her book “Understanding and Finding Agates“:

  • Scan the beach and look for the Iron oxide red color.
  • Look for rocks that show evident concentric banding.
  • Check for possible entrance and/or escape channels that allowed gases or originally escape from the cavity, silica-rich water to enter, and pressure formed during the agate precipitation process to escape.
  • Search for rocks with conchoidal fractures that give the specimen a more angular, irregular shape.
  • When the angle of sun is low on the horizon, walk toward the sun and look a distance in front of you to look for the extremely translucent red carnelian agates.

Read on for lots more and definitely stop in the Gitchee Gumee Museum if you make it to Grand Marais! (done it, loved it!)

View Neil’s photo of agates near Grand Marais bigger, see more in his slideshow, and view and purchase his photos at neilweaverphotography.com.

Northern Lights Rewind: July 11th Edition

Posted on by farlane

Aurora Appears on Great Sand Bay

The Aurora Appears, photo by Eric Hackney

NOAA and the National Weather Service provide forecasts for the Northern Lights through the Space Weather Prediction Center. They have a Minor Watch in effect for this evening due to a “disturbance in the solar wind due to a recurrent positive polarity coronal hole high speed stream (CH HSS) is likely to cause minor geomagnetic storming.”

Pretty sure that Obi-wan Kenobi or Yoda is monitoring the situation as well. If you’d like to up your chances of seeing the northern lights, definitely try stepping outside around 10:30 PM (or later) and taking a look up. Their Aurora Alert email is a great resource as well, delivering timely emails that let you know when conditions are right for the aurora

Eric took this photo one year ago today on Great Sand Bay way up on the northern shore of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula – could we get a repeat tonight?? View it bigger, see more from this night in his 7-11-15 Northern Lights III slideshow, and definitely follow Eric Hackney Photography on Facebook!

Much more about the northern lights on Michigan in Pictures!

Exotic Michigan: Beaver Creek Wilderness

Posted on by farlane

Pictured Rocks Beaver Basin

Beaver Basin Wilderness, photo by Michigan Nut Photography

The Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore says that the 11,740 acre Beaver Basin Wilderness was created in 2009 and:

…includes 13 miles of stunning Lake Superior shoreline from Spray Falls on the west to Sevenmile Creek on the east. The wilderness is some 3.5 miles deep.

The Beaver Basin Wilderness offers opportunities for quiet, solitude, wilderness recreation, and spiritual renewal. Individual and small group recreation is available along 8.4 miles of the North Country National Scenic Trail and 8.5 miles of connector trails as well as 6 backcountry campsites.

The area includes three beautifully clear lakes: Beaver Lake – 762 acres, Trappers Lake – 45 acres, Legion Lake – 35 acres and five cold water streams: Lowney Creek, Arsenault Creek, Sevenmile Creek, Little Beaver Creek, and Beaver Creek.

Click through for more including a map.

John writes that this is one of the exotic places you can go without a passport. Gotta love that about Michigan!! View the photo bigger, follow him on Facebook, and purchase it and other shots from one of Michigan’s coolest places in the Pictured Rocks gallery on his website. There’s a couple other photos of this feature including one from the cliffs above.

Here’s a video John took nearby too…

The Vortex: Roll cloud over Lake Michigan

Posted on by farlane

Vortex Cloud

The Vortex, photo by Nick Nerbonne

My corner of Northern Michigan was all abuzz last weekend due to a relatively rare meteorological phenomenon known as a “roll cloud.” Wikipedia’s entry on Arcus clouds explains:

An arcus cloud is a low, horizontal cloud formation. Roll clouds and shelf clouds are the two types of arcus clouds. A shelf cloud is usually associated with the leading edge of thunderstorm outflow; roll clouds are usually formed by outflows of cold air from sea breezes or cold fronts in the absence of thunderstorms.

…A roll cloud is a low, horizontal, tube-shaped, and relatively rare type of arcus cloud. They differ from shelf clouds by being completely detached from other cloud features. Roll clouds usually appear to be “rolling” about a horizontal axis. They are a solitary wave called a soliton, which is a wave that has a single crest and moves without changing speed or shape.

View Nick’s photo background big, scroll through his pictures on Facebook, and watch this time-lapse of the cloud…

Summer is Rushing In

Posted on by farlane

Rushing In by Heather Higham

Rushing In, photo by Heather Higham

It looks like parts of Michigan will be close to the 90s tomorrow, so get out there and start soaking up some of Michigan’s summertime beauty.

View Heather’s photo bigger, see more in her Summer slideshow, and definitely follow her at Snap Happy Gal Photography on Facebook where she’s got some really incredible shots from the past few days!

Hammock with a view at P.J. Hoffmaster State Park

Posted on by farlane

View from my hammock Hoffmaster State Park

View from my hammock, photo by Bailiwick Studios

The photographer says that the outlet of Little Black Creek was the view from his hammock at Hoffmaster State Park near Muskegon. Not too shabby!

The Gillette Nature Center’s page on P.J. Hoffmaster State Park says (in part):

P.J. Hoffmaster State Park was established in the 1960s in honor of Percy James Hoffmaster, the longest acting Director of Conservation and the first chief of state parks in Michigan. The park encompasses 1200 acres, including 3 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, and represents one of the finest examples of high relief, parabolic dunes and forested backdunes on the Great Lakes. The undisturbed quality of the habitat makes the park a refuge for 460 species of plants, nearly 90 species of birds and a rich array of mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects. Hoffmaster is home to several listed species of plants, reptiles and birds.

The park’s pristine sandy beach is often described in magazines and travel guides as one of the wildest and most scenic beaches in Michigan.

…The park’s ten miles of trails and diversity of birds provides a birding experience unparalleled in the region, especially in the spring at the peak of migration. The park’s 293 site campground provides the opportunity for an overnight stay, and the surrounding landscape abounds with outdoor adventure for overnight or day visitors alike.

View the photo background bigtacular and see more in Bailwick Studios’ slideshow.

More summer wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures.

Drifting

Posted on by farlane

Drifting

Drifting, photo by Aime Lucas

Amie took this last year in late May, and I’m posting this to let Mother Nature know that “35 degrees in May” is not what we’re looking for out of the month of May!

View Aime’s photo background bigilicious, see more in her Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore slideshow, and be sure to follow Aime Lucas Photography on Facebook.

More beach photos and lots more summery wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures!

Pure Michigan Picnic: April Edition

Posted on by farlane

Pure Michigan Picnic April 2016 Edition

Nice Day for a Picnic, photo by mileelanau

I don’t usually post my own photos on Michigan in Pictures, but I felt I had to share this one from Sunday. Pure Michigan! …yay??

mileelanau is the Instagram for my “flagship” Leelanau.com, and where I post pictures from hiking around northern lower Michigan. Follow mileelanau on Instagram for more.

PS: This turned out to be the picnic table of some old family friends. Loved discovering that on Facebook!! ;)

PPS: More beach and more Lake Michigan photos on Michigan in Pictures.

Five Things you need to know about Michigan: March Meltdown Edition

Posted on by farlane

Grove

Grove, photo by Liz Glass

On my Absolute Michigan website, I have a favorite feature called Five Things you need to know about Michigan.  

1Please go out and vote in the Michigan primaries today. I am going to vote for Bernie Sanders because I feel that in Michigan and elsewhere working folks, retirees, students, and many more who have ended up on the short end of a globalizing, transforming world are hurting. It seems to me that many of those we have elected to represent us have forgotten that government can be a powerful force for the betterment of society and that when profits come at the expense of others, we all suffer. Please vote for whoever you want to, and I’d love it if you took some time today to remember that you are a part of your government.

2Wow. I had the chance to drive across Michigan yesterday, windows down, basking in near 60 degree temperatures and knowing that spring is on the way. Here’s hoping that the mercury stays moderate and our farmers, orchardists & vintners have a great growing season.

 

3Liz Glass took today’s photo. You can visit her at the Lake Street Market in Boyne City.  She shared today’s photo back in 2012 in the Absolute Michigan pool (where I get most of the photos for Michigan in Pictures). Liz wrote:

I’ve been saving some ice shots to sprinkle in during the warmer months. This is from March 15, when the ice on Lake Charlevoix had melted into a pack of splinters that could then be pushed into piles by the moving water. The color here is real. The low sun is bouncing the golden brown of the sandy lake bottom up through the ice mound, and the looser shards on top are picking up the shimmering silvers and blues of the water and sky.

View her photo bigger and see more in her crazy-awesome Ice slideshow.

4If you have a problem with me being myself, please consider not telling me to “stick to the photos” and instead follow another blog/person/path that doesn’t bother you. I love Michigan, I love Michigan in Pictures, but I am an actual person who believes as I believe and does what I do. I will continue to do this, and telling me not to will just upset us both.

5Congratulations! By making it to here, you can send me an idea for something about Michigan to feature. I can’t promise that I will be able to, but I can promise you that I will try and reply in any case. Just email me or post a comment below.

support Michigan in Pictures

Chapel Rock in Winter

Posted on by farlane

Chapel Rock in Winter

Live Anywhere, photo by Jay

When you think about it, it’s not only miraculous that the white pine on Chapel Rock in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore survives with barely any soil, but also that it endures winter after winter in the teeth of Lake Superior.

Jay took this shot on February 20th last year. View it background bigtacular and jump into his slideshow for some more spectacular winter photos from the Pictured Rocks.