Fog Bank at Grand Sable Dunes, Jim Sisko at Pictured Rocks

Fog Bank by Jim Sisko

Fog Bank by Jim Sisko

I shared this photo waaaaaay back on August 19, 2009! Since my old posts are becoming inaccessible as the modern web leaves them behind, I’m trying to “save” at least one a week. I love Jim’s writings about the photos he takes and thought you would as well. Enjoy!

Fog rolls off of Lake Superior and up the Grand Sable Dunes on the Pictured Rocks Lakeshore as seen from the Log Slide Overlook west of Grand Marais in the Upper Peninsula Of Michigan. The Grand Sable Dunes are located on a five mile stretch between the Sable River and Au Sable Point in Alger County. The banks rise up to 275 feet high, created during the last ice age when sand and gravel filled in a deep rift in the glacier. Atop the gravelly banks, sand dunes rise another 80 feet. These are “perched dunes” because they are perched on top of another landform. They were probably formed when wind and waves piled up sand at the edge of Lake Nipissing, the forerunner of Lake Superior.

This distinct sandstone formation located on the south shore of Lake Superior northeast of Munising in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is known as Miners Castle, for the turret-like shape caused by wind and wave erosion. Miners Castle was named by Englishman Alexander Henry’s employees when they were exploring the area for minerals in 1771. Though no minerals were ever found, the name “Miners” has endured. The nine-story-high rock formation is one of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore’s most popular attractions, despite the 2006 collapse of one of its signature “turrets”.
Grand Portal Point is a well-known formation of rock that juts out into Lake Superior from the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore located northeast of the Upper Peninsula town of Munising, Michigan. There was once a cavity at the end that was large enough for a good sized ship to sail through and it was perhaps a hundred feet or more in height from the surface of the water. That arch collapsed during the night of Sunday, September 16, 1900. Grand Portal Point suffered a second, significant collapse sometime between the fall of 1999 and spring of 2000. The arch is still there, but there’s now a rubble pile in the bottom large enough to inhibit any water traffic.
My wife and I visited the Upper Peninsula town of Munising, Michigan recently and took a sunset cruise on Lake Superior to view the famous Pictured Rocks. One of the tour’s highlights is this imposing arch of rock that extends from the shoreline out to an outcropping located directly in Lake Superior. Lore has it that a couple displayed their love for one another by jumping off the top of this rock arch together.

Check out Jim’s Pictured Rocks or Lake Superior galleries for much more!

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Happy National Lighthouse Day, Michigan!

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse by Peter Tinetti

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse by Peter Tinetti

The American Lighthouse Foundation reminds us that it was on this day in 1789 that Congress approved an Act for the establishment and support of lighthouse, beacons, buoys and public piers. 200 years later, they established August 7, 1989 as National Lighthouse Day. Pure Michigan shares that Michigan has more lighthouses than any state, so hopefully we’ll be celebrating harder with donations & visits to some of Michigan’s 129 lighthouses!

This beauty is the Eagle Harbor Light on the Keweenaw Peninsula, first constructed in 1850. The Keweenaw Historical Society shares that some great history & the hours of the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse & Museum (open June – October). So many more Michigan lighthouses on Michigan in Pictures!

Peter took the photo above in September of 2017 & wrote that the mood of the lake can change from day to day and even hour to hour. I included one from an October storm where you can really see the sweet paint job on the Light’s iconic red brick tower plus a photo of the “Schoolhouse Light” on Grand Island off Munising. Head over to Flickr for his highlighted photos & hug a lighthouse today!!

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Splash-In Sunrise

Morning of the 2025 Splash-In by Footsore Fotography

Morning of the 2025 Splash-In by Footsore Fotography

The Grand Marais Splash-in is an annual gathering of seaplane pilots from that takes place in the village of Grand Marais next weekend (June 18-21, 2026). There’s events every day with the most fun on Saturday.

Gary is our Michigan in Pictures go-to for all thing Grand Marais & shared this picture last year. Follow Footsore Fotography on Facebook for his latest and view & purchase his work from his website.

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G3 Aurora Alert means Northern Lights are LIKELY for Michigan!

The Sky Lit Up at Isle Royale by Lake Superior Photo

The Sky Lit Up at Isle Royale by Lake Superior Photo

The NOAA / National Weather Service Space Weather Prediction Center issued a G3 Aurora Alert this morning after detecting THREE Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) heading our way. Details are in the image or on their website, but the current forecast calls for combined CME arrival around mid-afternoon EDT of June 4, with up to G3 levels possible afterwards, possibly continuing into Friday night. You can read about the various scales used to measure the aurora, but a G3 alert means that it’s possible we could see the lights in EVERY part of the state!!

Shawn shared this photo recently saying “What an amazing night at Isle Royale National Park – the sky lit up✨ The night of 05.28.2025 – memorable!!! You always hope to time Isle Royale visits like this.”

Indeed! So many Northern Lights & UP photos (including this one) available for viewing & purchase at Lake Superior Photo. And if you can’t get out or get a clear sky, Shawn has you covered with regular nighttime live streams of Lake Superior on her Facebook page!

Update on G3 watch for June 4-5 2026
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Will Summer 2026 (and El Niño) bring more barefoot aurora?

Barefoot Aurora by Lake Superior Photo

Barefoot Aurora by Lake Superior Photo

The weather has been getting a lot of (justifiable) bad press lately so I figured I’d try and put a little positive spin on news shared by Michigan Public that NOAA is forecasting a potentially strong El Niño weather pattern developing for Michigan this summer:

“Even though the evidence is still early, this could be a very significant event in 2026 and lingering into 2027,” says Daniel Swain, climate scientist with the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources.

A strong El Niño would drive up average global temperatures. The hottest years on record generally occur in years when El Niño is active, because El Niño occurs when the Eastern Pacific is hotter than usual. “Its function in the global earth system is to release heat from the deeper oceans that has been temporarily stored there,” Swain says. “El Niño allows that subducted heat to be unearthed.”

That dynamic played out in a big way in 2023 and 2024, when a long, strong El Niño pattern helped shatter global temperature records. 2023 smashed the record for the hottest year ever recorded on Earth, only to be surpassed by temperatures in 2024.

Last week Shawn shared this photo saying that she’s eagerly anticipating the return of nights watching the aurora barefoot so it looks like El Niño is gonna help with that. You can see lots more amazing photos from Lake Superior Photo on Facebook. You can also visit the Lake Superior Photo website to view & purchase photos and for information about their Marquette gallery along with photography workshops, tours, and guiding.

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Miners Castle 1961 – 2013

Miners Castle 1961 - 2013 by Ed Evans

Miners Castle 1961 – 2013 by Ed Evans

On Thursday morning twenty years ago today the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore reported that the northeast turret of the iconic Miners Castle rock formation had collapsed:

One turret remains on Miners Castle, the best-known feature of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The collapse was reported via cell phone by fisherman in the area, according to chief ranger Larry Hach. Most of the rock fell north and into Lake Superior, and there were no injuries.

While the rockfall at Miners Castle on April 13 was startling, such events are not rare along the Pictured Rocks escarpment. At least five major falls have occurred over the past dozen years … Rockfalls along the cliffs typically occur in the spring and fall due to freezing and thawing action of Mother Nature.

Ed shared these photos on a Michigan in Pictures post – click to tell him thanks!!

Much more Miner’s Castle on Michigan in Pictures including this awesome look at the underwater part of the rock formation! While the collapse of Miners Castle wasn’t recorded, here’s a video from 2021 showing the collapse of a section of cliff face near Mosquito Beach.

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Superior Crystal

Superior Crystal by Aubrietta Hope

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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The Legend still lives on: 50 years after the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

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.

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The Gales of November Remembered

memory by Yolanda Gonzalez

memory by Yolanda Gonzalez

“And the iron boats go as the mariners all know, with the gales of November remembered” – Gordon Lightfoot

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.

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Auroras in the Mist … and in the Dark

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

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