Lo, The Sun Walks North
“Over the back of the Florida basker,
over the froth of the Firth of Forth,
Up from Tahiti and Madagascar,
Lo, the sun walks north.”
These brilliant lines are from a marvelous poem called
Greeting to Spring (Not Without Trepidation) by Robert Lax
Read the whole thing and buy it here: http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2006/05/05
The sun is marching north and we are in the midst of spectacular spring thaw. This photo was shot through the opening of an ice cave last week. Common along the Lake Superior shores in the upper peninsula, ice caves are not as common down here in the lower peninsula where I live. I’d never seen one before. I was actually pondering getting in the truck and driving several hundred miles north just to shoot one when I heard a whiff of a rumor that an ice cave had formed, not just on Lake Michigan but on Lake Michigan along my local pier.
I had to crawl on my belly and squeeze through a small opening to get this shot. I am glad I was able to get some fabulous shots before word got out to the general public. When I went back the next day to show my spouse this marvelous thing there was already a line of people moving through. The people were exclaiming their oohs and ahs as they knocked down all the ice they could reach. In the past week many people have been driving from all over lower Michigan to get a shot of the cave. A friend posted a recent photo yesterday and all those marvelous icicles are gone.
Although it still stretches out beyond the horizon the ice is rotten in many places now and will not hold. I went down to test the shoreline last night and broke through the crust a few places so I didn’t bother stepping further out from shore. This morning, from the safety of the beach, I said my goodbyes to shooting winter ice. As I got back in my truck newly arrived tourists were walking around the police blockades and stepping out onto the remaining crumbling ice formations.
Edit: My old link didn’t work. Try this: https://www.writersalmanac.org/index.html%3Fp=5606.html
dunelight 
It was good you got there early before the masses. Great image. Nature has many wonders.
Yes it was and thanks. 🙂 Although I’ve had great photo ops this winter I am so ready for Nature’s wonders of spring.
Wow, it is a stunning photo, I thought it must be from the Arctic or something. You are lucky you found it so early, before it was over-run. isn’t it sad how people so easily and unthinkingly destroy beauty because they feel they have to have a piece of it? I have to admit that I would really want to get close to this too, so would probably be one of the vandals 😦
Thank you. I do not always understand people; they rushed into the cave, “Wow!!” and immediately began breaking kicking, whacking and stomping on all the formations. I cannot imagine what a park ranger goes through.
Awful. I heard similar story about people wrecking beautiful frozen waterfalls earlier in the northern hemisphere winter too.
😦
Yeah, humans harm what we love. 😦
What a brilliant idea and a fantastic photo. Thanks for sharing
Thank you. 🙂
Beautiful! A silly question I dare ask? How cold was the temp? Amazing!
Thank you, and we had just had a week of single digit (Fahrenheit ) weather so I knew the ice was as safe as it was going to get. I was wearing snow boarding gear and it was warmer in the cave than out in the air. Upper teens? Lower 20s? I don’t remember. 🙂
Timing is everything. Well done!
Superb.
Thank you and based on the quality of your work and your love of all seas, salty or not, that means a great deal to me. 🙂
wow..stunning!
Thank you. 🙂
Thank you for sharing! This is one of those things I had always hoped to see…Your photos are beautiful as well!
You are welcome…and thank you too!
That was well worth the work! You should have put it into the post as a bigger size and really show it off.
Nancy
Thank you. I am learning so many new things about this business, have so much needful equipment to buy and need to spend some serious money making prints that in the name of cost I have my eye on my ever shrinking photo allotment. There is another website with more space in the planning stages.
Wow. In all the years I lived in Michigan, I never got to see an ice cave. I’ve heard that it was a tough winter over there. Maybe the ice cave in your town is an auspicious sign. Hopefully, you’ll be rewarded with a lovely long spring.
Oh..thank you for the sentiment.
That picture is just Amazing!
Thank you. Today is March 20th, Vernal Equinox. That cave is gone and the water is pressing ever closer to our icy shores. You can see it on the cam. The cave was just the other side of that pier: http://www.muskegonsurfcam.com/#
It was worth all the effort. What an amazing composition…super shot 🙂
Thank you. As I write it is all melted. I plan to kayak there this week.
Fantastic 🙂 🙂 Will look forward to read about your kayaking experience there then ….
Reblogged this on Estelea's Blog and commented:
Some photographers are magical: they capture the light, in a slow and peaceful way… Their pictures are like poems. Meet with DuneLights, wander through her beautiful blog, and you’ll get my point. I had to post this pict, feels so good to feel a bit of cold when we are roasting in Cebu…
Thank you for the beautiful words and link. That ice cave was awesome.
I can tell! Looks so beautiful, wish we could get a bit of this ice here ! Thx again for your beautiful posts 🙂