Saturday, March 22, 2014

The Lake Superior Ice Caves

Many of us living in the Midwest are ready for Spring.  It has been a long, cold winter that started in early November and doesn't look like it's going to be letting up any time soon as temps in the 20's are the expected highs for next week from what I'm hearing.  While some may complain about Mother Nature and how she's been a tough, old bear this year, I would like to compliment her on her freezing over of the Great Lakes and what a marvel that has been.

Starting in late January, the news seemed to be all abuzz about the Ice Caves near the Apostle Islands National Lake Shore.  The images shown of these beautiful winter wonders were absolutely stunning. Newscasts were stating that visitors hadn't been able to walk out to the Ice Caves in many years due to the thin ice, but this year was different.  The Great Lakes seemed to be closer to freezing over every day and the opportunity to see the caves in their winter splendor may just be a once in a lifetime happening.  I told Kris, "Boy, I would sure like to go up there and visit those.  How awesome would that be?"  I didn't expect the reaction I received from him, but he smiled at me and said, "Make it happen, wife!"

You don't need to tell me twice!  I quickly checked our school calendar to see when we'd have a possible Friday off so that we could head up north.  From the readings I was doing about the Ice Caves, it seemed like February was going to be the optimal time to view the caves, but we just didn't have any openings in our schedule until March 7th.  Readings said that many times the ice has thawed by March and the waves of Lake Superior have taken over to leave just the Sea Caves that summer visitors love to kayak to and explore.  We decided to take our chances and head to Bayfield on March 7th.  If the Ice Caves were gone, we'd still enjoy a wonderful weekend away, spending time in a part of our lovely state that we rarely get to.

Early Friday evening, we arrived at the Carriage House which we rented just outside of Bayfield.  What a wonderful place this was to stay for our family!  It had all the amenities of home and was just minutes away from the Ice Caves.  We enjoyed our stay so much here that we plan to go back again some year during the summer.

We decided to head to the Ice Caves on Saturday, March 8, and go early as we heard parking was crazy on the weekends near Meyers Beach where the trek to the Ice Caves begins.  We were there about 8 a.m. and had to park about a mile away which was nothing compared to the 4-6 miles we heard people were parking away on some weekends!

What we saw when we got to the Ice Caves was simply amazing!  Words cannot describe the beauty, so I will let our pictures speak for us.










We spent five hours out on the ice and it was absolutely incredible!  Temperatures were in the mid-20's, there was hardly a wind to speak of, and Mother Nature was at her best.  It truly was a wonderful experience and we're so glad that we went.  Were YOU one of the 138, 292 people who had the opportunity to visit the Ice Caves this winter?



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