Sunset over Munising Bay by Michigan Nut Photography
The hits just keep coming from Michigan Nut!! See lots more from John on his Facebook page and view & purchase his work at michigannutphotography.com.
Sunset over Munising Bay
Chapel Rock Revisit
Chapel Revisit, photo by Rudy Malmquist
View Rudy’s shot from August of 2014 background bigtacular and see more including a nice pic of nearby Spray Falls in his slideshow.
Lots more about Chapel Rock on Michigan in Pictures.
Snowvember in Michigan
Thanksgiving Snow – Pine Cone Edition, photo by Tom Hughes
Much of Michigan, particularly the southern 2/3 of the Lower Peninsula, is bracing for significant snowfall – as much as 6″ by Sunday morning according to mLive’s Mark Torregrossa:
Snow, possibly mixed with rain, will start in the southwest corner of Lower Michigan after 2 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 21. This includes Muskegon, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. By 8 a.m. Saturday, wet snow, mixed with rain, will have spread into southeastern Lower Michigan, including Lansing, Jackson, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, Bay City and Midland. Snow should make it into northern Lower Michigan, including Traverse City, Houghton Lake and Alpena by early Saturday afternoon.
The morning will have temperatures between 32 degrees and 35 degrees. Snow will probably struggle to accumulate during the morning.
All of the model data is now consistent that the storm center will intensify during the afternoon. Precipitation will be heaviest during the afternoon and early evening Saturday.
That’s when the driving conditions will likely worsen dramatically and possibly quickly.
The colder air, with temperatures of about 31 degrees will move in to southern Lower between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. At the same time there could be a fairly heavy rate of snow.
Read on for more at mLive. If you’re feeling sad, remember that last November was the snowiest since 1897 in much of Michigan!!
View Tom’s photo bigger and see more in his Rochester MI slideshow.
Also tune in to November snow in the Absolute Michigan pool on Flickr for photos at they are added!
The Anvil and the Pine
Cliffs from below, photo by David Clark
David writes that “The Anvil” is a high point where a white pine somehow makes a living growing out of a crack in the rock. On his blog, Cliffs and Ruins he writes:
This is one of my favorite places along the Cliff range: The Lookout. Apparently different people have different lookouts, but this is what I think of as the Cliff Lookout.
It’s a bit of a hike (no, you don’t have to go straight up the side of the cliffs… but you can if you want), but the view is 100% worth it. You can even see the silhouettes of the Huron Mountains in the distance. The most amazing thing, to me, is that tree — you can see it here. It’s a big old pine growing straight up out of the rock, over the edge of the cliffs.
There’s nothing quite like the solitude at the top of the lookout. When I snowshoed out to the lookout, there weren’t any tracks at all on the trail to the lookout — nor on the trail to the trail! It was one of those feelings which I love when I’m hiking up here — that I’m the first person in years to set foot here and see these sights. It might not be true, but this is still one of my favorite places to go whenever I really need some time alone.
View his photo background bigtacular and see more in his Winter slideshow. You can purchase David’s pics right here.
More winter wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures.
Michigan’s State Tree: White Pine (Pinus strobus)
This week is Arbor Week, a week dedicated to celebrating and planting trees. One tree for Michiganders to celebrate is the eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus), which was adopted as our official State Tree by Act 7 on March 4, 1955. Here’s an edited summary of what I’ve learned about white pines.
The eastern white pine, is also known as “soft pine.” It was called the Tree of Peace by the Iroquois and in Ojibway, Zhingwaak. Mature white pines can easily live 200+ years of age, with some Michigan trees that have approached 500 years in age. The eastern white pine has the distinction of being the tallest tree in eastern North America, and pre-colonial stands were reported over 200′ in height.
It was said that when settlers arrived, a squirrel could travel in the forest canopy from one side of the state to the other. With this amazing resource, Michigan led the nation in lumber production in the 1880s and 1890s, and by the early 1900s, over 100 million of Michigan pine trees worth more than all the gold mined in California had been felled in the Lower Peninsula. Most of that value was in white pine, an when the forest was depleted, timber companies moved to the UP.
Small white pines are popular as Christmas trees due to their ability to hold needles, while large white pines were prized as ship masts and known as mast pines by the British navy. These trees were marked with a broad arrow by agents of the crown, a very controversial action that was one of the factors leading to the Revolutionary War. The original masts on the USS Constitution (aka Old Ironsides) were single trees before they realized that laminated trees were better about to withstand cannon fire.
More about the White Pine in Michigan
- According to the Michigan Big Tree Program, the largest white pine in Michigan is a 143 ft. Eastern White Pine in Luce County. Click here to see it being climbed!
- If you want to see some remainders of Michigan’s old growth pine forest, consider a visit to Harwick Pines State Park near Grayling. The park features a 49-acre forest and extensive lumbering exhibits – a definite treat!
- Michigan’s See what that logging looked like in this photo from Michigan in Pictures
- Here’s an informative kid’s feature on Michigan’s white pine
- Tips on soil conditions and other considerations for planting white pines
- Read about challenges the white pine is facing and efforts to repopulate in Great Lakes Echo.
- Check out the white pine slideshow from the Absolute Michigan pool on Flickr.
Scott writes that this mighty 200+ year old White Pine was spared the lumberjack’s axe, but he’s glad to have this remnant of the forest that once covered Upper Michigan standing sentinel in the forest surrounding his cabin. Check it out bigger and in his Fisheye slideshow. More of Scott’s work on his Facebook.
More of Michigan’s tallest things and more Michigan state symbols on Michigan in Pictures.
Michigan in Pictures 