Water and Ice

I really don't know why water and ice is so attractive to some photographers.

If I go somewhere, I am always hoping to see a pond or a stream. I love them.
Big lakes are incredible too. But I don't live near any. However, I think a few trips along Lake Michigan or Lake Superior in the winter would be great fun.

That is if one could take the cold weather.

Mirror Lake was interesting and I will definitely want to go back in the spring and visit one little known place. In fact I am not even going to mention the name of the place or how to find it.

Pewitt's Nest used to be a pleasure to go to. Now you have to visit it during a time that normal people wouldn't show up. In the summer people crowd to it.

This place did not disappoint.  And now that we've found it, we'll leave it to local knowledge to keep it somewhat quiet.
It isn't easy to get to, it is pretty much unmarked, and if you are resourceful, you could figure out where it is.

In the shot below can you see the person? She is one of the avid hikers and part of our 'gang'. She is in the lower left portion of the pano shot.

We were just...Wowed.

A natural gorge where none seemed to be. Hidden in a forest.
Naturally with the sandstone and limestone formations, the water drips off the sides of the gorge and forms fantastic ice flows.

Last week we had days of warm weather and we were pretty sure that no ice formations would be left.
However.
Looking at these indeed they must have been massive, monstrous!

It seems the mostly melted and then were frozen when the next storm moved in, so there was new and old ice formations mixed in together.

We'd found an 'ultimate' ice gorge full of formations.

And because it would be nice to get an idea of the size of the ice, here is my friend climbing along the icy precipice to get a different view.
I was not that brave.

Here are my friends exploring also.

One might wonder about the camouflage colored clothes. If you want outdoor gear that is warm and will stand up to hard hiking you seek the sales rack for hunting clothing. It is pretty simple. Besides it is fun to 'hide' from each other!

We found open water and the ones with tripods split up each of us hunting for a neater spot to grab some shots of the icy waters.

We haven't all yet traded our shots with each other so here are the ones I took.
Yes, we generally share our photo adventures with each other so we can look at how each of us saw our adventure.

I find that interesting because not everyone has the same perspective on things.

After a snack for the kids we headed back. The sun was breaking from the clouds and we still had to visit Parfrey's Glen.

Bad Weather is Good for..

Hiking and Photography! Really!

The NOAA said "Winter Storm Warning" for my area. For the area we had planned on going was "Winter Weather Advisory".

Now what exactly did that mean?
Well.
For my place it meant. Thundersnow, lightening, hail, rain, snow, more rain, more snow, and then sleet. And then Freezing Rain.

I woke up when the lightening and thunder occurred. It was loud and incredible. Then came the hail. 

Well, never mind that. I met up with the Kenosha Crew and we ate breakfast while deciding on where to 'adventure' first. We got into our Subaru's and headed to Mirror Lake.
I'd always wanted to go there and hadn't been there yet.

When I bought my annual sticker for my car my friends came in with me. The lady behind the counter sort of gave us a funny look when we picked up a trial map.
We gleefully announced we were going hiking!

I'm pretty sure she locked the door behind us.
Nah...she didn't. Maybe just radioed the rangers about the crazy folks in two Subarus.
We drove on the crunchy slippery roads with a mist of freezing sleet/rain/mist coming down.
We found an area that was open for parking and proceeded to put on hiking gear.

"Look mom...dad! I ran down the log and got out here!"
Mom and dad: "Be careful!"

"Whoops! Hey my boot IS waterproof!"

And we went on hiking.

And we went exploring. 
Do you know what it is like to feel like you have a whole State Park all to yourself? No? 
Well we did. The mist came down and when a bit of a breeze picked up we found places to get out of the wind.

I followed an old staircase that lead to nowhere and found an interesting view that looked out over the frozen lake.

However, the view straight down where my friends had been was just as interesting.

And roots. I like roots, so gnarly, so sturdy, so intriguing!

We headed down into the 'gorge' under the Ishnala Bridge and sort of wandered around exploring. Everyone did their own thing.

And that was just the first day of our 3rd annual Ice Hike. We were pretty sure that winter would have left us, but fortuneatly Mother Nature to quote my friend Daryl, "Did not disappoint."

I wonder if the lady in the Admissions office breathed a sigh of relief when we drove out. 

Little did she know that we were going to do it all again the next day, only someplace else.