Lake Superior's Frozen Beach Resembling the Lunar Surface

Mark and I hiked into the Houghton Canal Lake Park.  The weather was 35 degrees, sunshine, with low winds. We had to leave the car at the road head and hike in about 1/2 mile - the Township does not keep that road plowed and the Jeep would get stuck if we tried to drive in.  Last week Mark went alone and took his snow shoes, but today he wore boots and I had boots with ice cleats attached (glad to have the cleats).  Here are some of the photos and videos we took.

120 miles of frozen lake to Canada

As soon as we crested the hill, I was in awe - it resembled the lunar surface.  The lake froze off the coast about 120 feet and then thawed, broke, and the broken ice was shoved up on top of the previous ice, by the power of the lake, and then refroze. 

This continued building shelves or cliffs of ice that have to be 30 feet tall or higher...viewing from the shore side.  From the frozen lake side, they appear as giant cliffs.

Mark was able to climb to the top and down below the cliffs in order to take some of these photos. I didn't try to climb to the top, even with ice cleats.  You all know me well - I'm not as daring as Mark.

Most of the snow was white, but I was glad to see the natural darknesses from the water so that you can see the beauty in nature.

The weather is predicted to be above freezing (as high as the mid 50s) for the next week or more, so all this will start to melt...and become very slick, we're glad we hiked to the shore so we could experience these views.

Toward the breaker wall, the ice broke, froze again and again, forming ice caves with stalactites.

The wind on the lake is very strong, swirling the snow into snow devils.  You can see the results here and in the next few photos.  Much like sand in the desert - it is beautiful!

There were a few others at the beach, mostly college kids, enjoying the fine weather and views!  We were there about an hour and hiked back to the car.  

Since we are suppose to have over a week of above freezing temps, the road will get mushier, the ice will start to melt and refreeze, so we'll see what next few weeks looks like at the road head!

We may decided to drive in again to experience for ourselves what the melting looks like.  We'll keep you posted.