Lake Superior Ice Caves, March 2014

It’s been a good 11 months, and I promised to post some pictures so much earlier. To jump straight to the gallery, click here: http://jen.jllocke.com/blog/2016/12/lake-superior-ice-caves-march-2014-gallery/ and please be patient for all the photos to load.

I’m an adventurer at heart. Anywhere I go, I try to seek out the remote areas, the spectacular views, and the places unlike others anywhere else in the world. One of my childhood dreams was to be a National Geographic photographer. Needless to say, I have chosen a different route since then. But I have maintained my appreciation for the beauty of the natural world and my passion for capturing my perspective to share with others.

We had a whopper of a winter last year and I loved it. The vast majority of the Great Lakes froze over and there were many places with exceptional views. What captured the heart of people all over the world were the ice caves near Bayfield, WI and the Apostle Islands. There were pictures all over the internet on personal sites, news sites, and magazine sites. I yearned to join the exodus.

We decided to go the first weekend of March. We drove halfway up Friday, February 28 and stayed in Minocqua, WI at the Northwoods Inn & Suites. It was affordable and the bed was stiff, but we weren’t there for a spa weekend. We just needed a warm place to sleep and shower. The owners were great, too. You could have a conversation with them and they were very down to earth.

Saturday morning we packed food and water, brought extra warm winter gear and our Yaktrax, and bundled up like never before. The high that day was around 0° and the wind chill was much lower than that. We found out later how difficult the temperature made biting into a granola bar.

When we got to the park, there were cars everywhere. We had to park at least a mile down the road from the park entrance and walk about a mile from the entrance to the lake. The experience was unlike anything else. We spent a total of about five hours outside in that crazy cold, using hand warmers and staying covered up. And you’ll see some pictures where my coat zipper is partially open. Sometimes I was too warm and other times my layers forced the coat open. I don’t think I can even remember how many layers of clothing I was wearing. If we did this again, we’d wear snow pants or some kind of windproof pants. That was the only part of us that got cold. According to our pedometers, we walked about ten miles that day.

The photos have their own page to enable this page to load quickly. Please be patient when that page loads, as there are about 100 photos. Jerry and I both took pictures, so there are going to be some that are similar. This is only a fraction of the photos we took. I pulled out some of my favorites for you. Please note some of the pictures have pink and blue ice. Learning about the pink and blue ice was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

 

 

One Comment On “Lake Superior Ice Caves, March 2014”

  1. Pingback: Photos Located! – Rectory of Doubt

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