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Lighthouses - South Haven and Holland

3/23/2015

When I headed home today, I decided to stop by a couple of lighthouses on Lake Michigan that were not too far out of the way. The first was the lighthouse at South Haven. It was snowing while I was there, so the photos did not come out as well as the ones from St. Joseph.

Snowy Lighthouse

Underwater Ice

The keeper used the catwalk to get to the lighthouse when the water was rough

Great weather for ducks and lighthouses

The next lighthouse was in Holland, home of the Tulip Festival. No tulips in sight today. The snow stopped by the time I reached Holland, but it was still overcast.

It took longer to get the photos than I had planned. My GPS tried to take me there, but I could only follow the directions so far. It turns out the lighthouse is in a gated community. It is accessible by foot two days a week. (Not today) I had to drive around Lake Macatawa to get to Holland State Park on the other side of the inlet. At least it gave me more than one perspective.

The little red lighthouse

There were quite a few gulls flying around

A different perspective

South breakwater light

North breakwater light

The historical marker with the lighthouse in the background

A closer look at the marker

Thanks for stopping by.
Rob

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Thawing Lake Michigan - Southwest Michigan

3/22/2015

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Most of the snow has melted in the lower half of the lower peninsula. What is left is either in heavy shade or the remnants of big piles from the parking lots. Lake Michigan is beginning to thaw, but when that much water freezes, it takes a long time to thaw. I decided to drive out to see how it looks in late March. The first photos are from the beach at Van Buren State Park.

This is the view when I first walked out on the beach.

This piece almost looks like it is floating in mid air.

A frozen sand bar. The water was lapping up against it.

There was quite a bit of this stuff on the beaches. It looks a little like tumbleweed.

An iceberg. I don't think this one could sink a ship.

It looks like someone forgot there is no alcohol on the beach.

One lone piece of ice.

It is only driftwood, but it looked really cool.

The flat looking area is still frozen. The rippled area is open water.

If the other piece of ice got together will all of its friends, it could cause some problems for a ship.

Looking back toward the beach as I walked out.

When I left Van Buren State Park, I drove south toward Benton Harbor. Along the way, I stopped at a Roadside Park in Hager Township.

This was a small river running in front of the small dunes in the next photo.

There are quite a few smaller dunes near the water. I could not get close to them, so I don't know if they are all sand, or if they are sand covering ice.

Looking north along the beach toward Van Buren State Park. The steam is from the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant. Later I realized that is probably why there was so much open water there.

The last stop was the St. Joseph North Pier Lighthouse. I would like to have seen the lighthouses a few weeks ago before the thaw, but I am not sure I could have made it out to see them. There are two lighthouses. I made it to the first one with no problem. As I was walking between the two lighthouses, the piles of snow encroached more and more on the walkway. Even though there was a person at the outer lighthouse I decided to turn around. I did not want to take a chance on going for a swim in the St. Joseph River with all my camera equipment. :-)