Since the weatherman mentioned snow and sleet in the forecast for today, that made me a little blue and so I thought I would post more of the blue ice. I wondered why the ice in that area was more compact than the surrounding area to make it look blue. Maybe it heard spring will arrive some day and it would disappear and be forgotten and the ice was sad too.
Blue Ice
Besides the ice caves on the shore of Lake Superior, there were frozen water falls to view which might just be a little a wet trickle in the summer but it creates a large frozen falls in the winter.
The ice also appears different colors, like the yellow or pink, which picks up sand grains from the sandstone. And then in certain spots you can find blue ice, which is caused by how light is absorbed in the snow and ice and the difference in wavelength from the red spectrum to the blue. Water and ice behaves like a blue filter, which absorbs the reds and orange, and why deeper water appears blue.
Snow is composed of a bunch of ice grains with air in between them and almost all of the visible light striking the snow is reflected back and appears white. But in ice, there is less air and so fewer opportunities for light to scatter back out and light travels farther into the ice and gives the ice more time to absorb the red light so when the light returns to the surface, it is lacking red light, making it appear blue.
Colorful Ice
In this cave, you don’t have to worry about icicles falling down on your head, but you might want to watch out for falling slabs of rock instead. Plus you have to remember that you are walking on ice which you hear cracking and you wonder if you will drop into Lake Superior. Even though it was a three mile hike and you listened to the creaking and moaning of the ice under your feet, it was a grand area to explore the depths and height of this cave with walls coated with different types of ice including crystal clear and a ceiling of red colored sandstone which took on a golden glow as the sun set.
Red Golden Cave
On the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Facebook page, they made this comment about the ice caves. “As the weather warms up, the walk to the ice caves will be more pleasant – but that also means that icicles will start melting and falling and there will be more slush on the ice – make sure not to stand under ice formations and wear waterproof boots – with ice cleats!”
And standing under or near one of the icicles could be very hazardous to one’s health, as some like this one, are an average of three and half to four feet in diameter and even larger at the base. Even this one has a section which is close to six feet across so it would have a bit of an impact if it hit you. It appears it make a bit of an impact on the ice surface and created a crack in the ice.
Fallen ‘Little’ Icicle
Although I have another shot without people in my landscape picture, I did decide to use this one so one could get the scale of rocks, cliffs and caves. On the far left there are two people walking aside the cliffs, one wearing red and the other in black.
It was this cave opening which I wanted to get back to when the sun was going down to catch the golden glow. For the picture I posted on February 13, I was inside looking out towards the direction where I was standing to take this picture looking into it earlier in the afternoon. And since there was so many caves and ice formations to see, I had to hustle back to this spot when the sun was setting. But by staying at the cave until the sun went down, it meant a mile and half hike across the frozen Lake Superior in sub-zero temps in quickly fading twilight but it was worth it.
The Photographer’s Cave
Since yesterday I referenced the opening which I walked through, I figured I post the tunnel which cut through to the other side of the rock cliff.
Through the Ice Tunnel
I love the golden glow which appears when the sun begins to set but the golden moment doesn’t last long and I’m not always in the spot I want to be when that moment arrives. And when I shoot landscape photos, I try not to have man-made objects in them or people, but photographs don’t always give you the scale without a reference or more views. This cave went very deep which isn’t seen in this view and with a very high ceiling. The little, icy opening on the left side was big enough for me to walk through so it would have been a long drop if I fell off the top when I hiked on the ridge of the caves in the summer. But then I didn’t know I wasn’t walking on solid ground so not sure I will feel so safe to walk on top again since I saw recent slabs that have fallen from the ceiling and sides.
Golden Cave
Today is another cold, crispy day with some snow blowing across the fields and the snow can really blow across the surface of Lake Superior with very few things to slow the snow down. When I was inside this ice cave, my glasses and camera fogged up since it was warmer near the ice than being in the open air so you know it was cold outside.
I enjoyed the view from here and took several pictures, but I was really delaying getting down out of the cave since I was trying to figure out how to gracefully get down on my butt and slide out. At least the snow pants were slippery and so I slide out easy, but maybe too easy and too quickly!
Mouth of an Ice Cave
I much more prefer seeing ice on these cave walls than on the roads I have been driving on. The ice formations on the caves of the south shore of Lake Superior are various colors including clear ice several inches thick.
And some of the cave tunnels reminded me of the Olympic luge track except I didn’t have a sled so in some of the tunnels, I just had to sit on my butt to slide out, but the caves were memorable to see.
Icy Tunnels
These hanging ice stalactites almost looked like the snow that has coming down overnight and hard to see anything but white.
Ice Stalactites
