Superior Crystal by Aubrieta Hope
Aubrieta shared this incredible shot of a sunset over Lake Superior in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Follow Michigan scenery on Facebook for her latest and view & purchase her work on her website.
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Edmund Fitzgerald, 1971 by Greenmars
50 years on November 10, 1975, the mighty SS Edmund Fitzgerald was lost with all hands in a powerful storm on Lake Superior. At 729-feet long, it was the largest ship on the Lakes at the time and the largest vessel to ever sink in the Great Lakes.
While Gordon Lightfoot’s classic song The Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald undoubtedly contributed to the legend of the Fitz, the documentary Backstory: The Edmund Fitzgerald from Click on Detroit/Local 4 on the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald explores the myriad ways the ship in woven into Michigan’s culture & consciousness. I really encourage you to make some time to watch this excellent documentary. In addition to exploring the mystery of the wreck and the impact of Lightfoot’s iconic song, it features anecdotes like the fact many of the furnishings were from Hudson’s and a truly beautiful recounting of the stories of the sailors lost. Seriously excellent work!
I color corrected both of Greenmars’ photos of the Fitzgerald. The photo of the Fitzgerald’s bell was taken & shared by Hazelridgegirl & you can see them all and many more at SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Wikimedia Commons.
Much (much) more about the Edmund Fitzgerald on Michigan in Pictures.
Every Michigander knows that the winds of November are to be respected and even feared on the Great Lakes. The State of Michigan says that an estimated 6,000 vessels were lost on the Great Lakes with about a quarter of these canoes, sailing ships, ferries, steamers, and modern ore boats like the mighty SS Edmnd Fitzgerald still remain on Michigan’s 38,000 square miles of the Great Lakes bottomlands.
Michigan in Pictures has a lot of these stories from the Edmund Fitzgerald to the Christmas Tree Ship to the Freshwater Fury aka the White Hurricane of 1913 that happened 112 years ago today. See them all in Michigan shipwrecks on Michigan in Pictures.
Yolanda took this photo a memorial at Whitefish Point Lighthouse to few of those lost aboard the S. S. Edmund Fitzgerald. More in her excellent Somewhere in Michigan gallery.
Aurora in the Mist by Aubrieta Hope
Michigan has been awash in Northern Lights for the last several days, and this morning’s NOAA/NWS Space Weather Alert Email says there’s a good chance much of Michigan can see them tonight as well!
I encourage you to click to subscribe to that email, and also to check out our post about how to see the Northern Lights in Michigan. You will also want to join the Michigan Aurora Chasers group on Facebook where I first saw the photo above from last June at Little Girl’s Point on Lake Superior and where Aubrieta is one of the resident aurora experts. View more of her work on Facebook and on her website. She also shared the photo below yesterday. While I can’t link to it, I wanted to what she wrote as a cautionary tale to remind you to double check your gear before you are go outside in the dark!
On September 30 at 2:00 a.m., I made a once-in-a-lifetime mistake. I set out on a hike to the end of the Hunters Point Trail in Copper Harbor, hoping to shoot the Aurora over Porter’s Island. I was fried from shooting the Aurora three nights in a row, so I packed light: a small camera bag, a headlamp, a flashlight and a fanny pack. Having shot for hours, the battery in the camera and the headlamp were nearly done, but I knew I had a spare camera battery and my Fenix flashlight as backup. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that the battery in my Fenix flashlight was dead. I got exactly one shot of the scene before my camera battery died. This one. I plugged in my spare camera battery but it was dead, too. So, I headed back up the trail in near-darkness with just the stars and Aurora to light my way. Those of you who know about my life-long obsession with flashlights, will think this is a tall tale. But it’s a true story! As is the fact that all my batteries are re-charging now, including the one that operates my brain. How I love these Keweenaw nights!
Aurora over Porter’s Island by Aubrieta Hope
Chapel Beach Storm by Gary McCormick
Although we were just in the neighborhood on Monday for the Seven Wonders of Michigan, I couldn’t resist encouraging you to take a look around at one of my favorite Michigan hikes when Gary shared this photo of a storm rolling into Chapel Beach yesterday! The river you see in the foreground is the Chapel River that flows from Chapel Falls (pictured below).
You can see lots more in Gary’s Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore gallery on Flickr and view & purchase his photos of Pictured Rocks & elsewhere at Footsore Fotography!
Chapel Rock by Craig Sterken Photography
Michigan has some truly incredible sights, but I have to think that Chapel Rock in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore belongs at or near the top of any list of the 7 Wonders of Michigan. Apparently I started to compile a list back in 2015 & added Mackinac Island’s Arch Rock to it. Let’s add Chapel Rock as well. If you have suggestions for the list, share in the comments and then we can vote on them all!
The Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore says:
The Chapel area was named by early European explorers and is found on early maps as La Chappelle. Chapel Rock is a remnant of Cambrian age sandstone that was carved by Lake Nipissing high water some 3800 years ago. Continual erosion has carved the rock into the beautiful sculpture it is today. There once was an archway connecting the rock to the mainland (see pic below!). The arch collapsed in the 1940s. The lone white pine on Chapel Rock is estimated to be about 250 years old.
Atlas Obscura adds that a member of the Douglass Houghton expedition exploring Lake Superior’s southern shore described a single pine tree that grew like a “spire” out of the sparse dirt covering the top of the outcropping. Till this day, the same resilient pine stands sentinel over Chapel Rock, connected to the mainland by its extensive root system.
Craig shares that the cool weather has him thinking about autumn colors, and that he was honored to have this photo purchased by National Geographic for a book on national parks! I will for sure share the book when it’s out. You don’t have to wait to see more from Craig though! Follow Craig Serken Photography on Facebook and view or purchase his work on his website!
Chapel Arch by Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
If you’ve been thinking that this summer is smokier than most, you are not wrong according to WKAR Public Media and Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism:
So far, smoke-induced air quality advisories have been issued for more than 20 days. Last year, there were none due to wildfires.
…Atmospheric conditions and wind direction bring smoke from Canada into Michigan. High-and low-pressure systems are common ways smoke is transported, said Rebecca Hansen, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service Grand Rapids office. Most recently, all those cloudless skies—due to a high-pressure system—helped blow the smoke right into the state, she said. ‘”Due to the light winds moving around, that’s helping the smoke stay over the area too … Canada has been experiencing warmer and drier conditions, and that definitely increases the wildfire risk,” Hansen said.
Mark took this in the UP a few days ago. See more on his Flickr.
Double Rainbow over Munising Bay by Michigan Nut Photography
The unrelenting flooding across Michigan and the country has a lot of us looking for the rainbow, and thankfully Michigan Nut found two for us! The National Weather Service shares how double rainbows are formed:
Sometimes we see two rainbows at once. Not all of the energy of the ray escapes the raindrop after it is reflected once. A part of the ray is reflected again, and travels along a different path inside the drop to emerge from the drop at a different angle. The rainbow we normally see is called the primary rainbow and is produced from one internal reflection. The secondary rainbow arises from two internal reflections and the rays exit the drop the second time at an angle of around 50 degrees, rather than the 42 degrees for the primary rainbow. This effect produces the secondary rainbow, with the colors reversed from the primary rainbow. It is possible for light to be reflected more than twice within a raindrop, but these additional rainbows are typically never seen under normal circumstances.
Atmospheric Optics (the OG rainbow site) adds that secondary rainbows appear broader than the primary rainbow, measuring approximately 1.8 times its width so the top rainbow is the copy!
John shared this photo of a doble rainbow over Lake Superior’s Munising Bay on his Facebook. For sure follow him there and view & purchase his work at michigannutphotography.com.
Hasselblad 501CM w: 180CF-Lake Superior Shoreline (Little Girl’s Point) by Kirt E Carter
One of my favorite things about Michigan in Pictures is seeing some of the incredible cameras people are using.
One man who has some sweet gear is Kirt E. Carter and he has been bringing some incredible Hasselblad pics to the Absolute Michigan group on Flickr for the better part of a decade. I figured today was a good day to bring attention to his amazing work. The large one below of icicles on the Eagle Harbor shoreline – see more in the Hasselblad search in the Absolute Michigan group & for sure head over to his website to view & purchase his work!
“Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?”
It’s November 10th again, which means that for the 48th year straight year I have Gordon Lightfoot’s legendary ballad to the Witch of November on repeat. My absolute favorite version of the song (as many of you know probably all too wdell) is this version that Joseph Fulton created way back in 2009. Given YouTube’s ruthlessness on music copyright, I have to assume that Lightfoot blessed this because from the moment Harry Reasoner begins speaking, who wouldn’t?
You can join the 49th annual Great Lakes Memorial Service, a remembrance of the crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald in person at Mariners’ Church in downtown Detroit or on their YouTube livestream at 11am today. On November 11, 1975 they rang their church bell 29 times in honor of all the sailors that lost their lives due to the wreck of the S.S. Edmund FItzgerald. They do it every year, and the beloved service also commemorates all sailors who have lost their lives on the Great Lakes.
Here are a couple of photos I took recently of the beautiful stained glass and the historical marker at Mariners’ Church which is between Hart Plaza and the Renaissance Center on the riverfront in downtown Detroit. Lots more about the Edmund Fitzgerald on Michigan in Pictures!
Michigan in Pictures 
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