Postcards from Michigan
  • Home
  • Postcards from Michigan
  • Postcards to Michigan
  • Previous Postcards Site

Thawing Lake Michigan - Southwest Michigan

3/22/2015

0 Comments

 
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.
Picture
This is the view when I first walked out on the beach.
Picture
This piece almost looks like it is floating in mid air.
Picture
A frozen sand bar. The water was lapping up against it.
Picture
There was quite a bit of this stuff on the beaches. It looks a little like tumbleweed.
Picture
An iceberg. I don't think this one could sink a ship.
Picture
It looks like someone forgot there is no alcohol on the beach.
Picture
One lone piece of ice.
Picture
It is only driftwood, but it looked really cool.
Picture
The flat looking area is still frozen. The rippled area is open water.
Picture
If the other piece of ice got together will all of its friends, it could cause some problems for a ship.
Picture
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.
Picture
This was a small river running in front of the small dunes in the next photo.
Picture
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.
Picture
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. :-)
The inner lighthouse.
People fishing on the other side of the inlet. They are hard core.
Closer look at the inner lighthouse.
Ice surrounding the two lighthouses.
The inner and outer lighthouses.
A closer look at the outer lighthouse.
There was more ice here than near the State Park.
Where the water and land meet.
An open area in the ice.
Take a closer look at the open water. There are ducks and gulls swimming.
Thanks for stopping by.
Rob
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Robin Roberts

    This is my photo blog. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

    Categories

    All
    Agriculture
    Amusement Park
    Art
    Buildings
    Celtic
    Cemetery
    Downtown
    Fall
    Farm
    Festival
    Flowers
    History
    Ice
    Jazz
    Lansing
    Lighthouse
    Michigan
    Outdoors
    Parade
    Petroglyph
    River
    Snow
    Spring
    Trees
    Trillium
    Vegetables
    Wildlife
    Williamston
    Wine
    Winter

    Archives

    March 2015
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013

    RSS Feed

Creative Commons License
This work by Robin Roberts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.