Our Sunday family outing this week was supposed to be a quick hike from Marquette Park to Lake Street Beach along the Chanute Trail then back to Marquette Park along the beach. After a foggy morning, the sun broke through with blue skies and we had warmer temperatures as the day moved along.
Besides the zero degree temperatures of a couple of days ago, we've had a very mild winter this year. But these signs are put up every winter along the Lake Michigan shoreline.
The dogs took us off course right away.
The Grand Calumet Lagoons were frozen but I doubt the ice was thick enough to walk on. It was such a beautiful day that I was beginning to think this hike might take longer than I originally planned.
Yeti and Nola headed toward the Pavilion...
...then they cut across the grass toward the lagoons.
The back deck staircase of the Pavilion leads right to the lagoon.
We took the scenic route over the bridges back to the picnic area.
The girls just kept walking while the boys stopped to enjoy all the natural beauty of the day.
The Marquette Park Christmas Tree looking good in the sunshine.
Sure the trees are bare, but they still look good with that blue sky above them.
Yeti and I enjoying the view high above the lagoons.
The view from the dunes above the Chanute Trail.
I liked the evergreen and the brown leaves framing the picture of Chrissy and Nola running down the dune.
The beavers have taken down five trees along the shore of the wetlands between the dunes.
These wetlands get some sun so there were partially frozen with some open water.
The hectic lives we lead nowadays disappears at times like these. Walking in the snow and sunshine is as much fun for me now as it was when I was a kid.
"In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful." - Alice Walker
We hiked over the dunes onto Lake Street Beach.
The dunes closest to the shore have been flatten by the storms this winter.
I was surprised by the amount of shelf ice on the beach and the frozen sand covered chunks of ice scattered across the beach.
Always happy to get bright colors in a photograph.
It was right about here that I realized how intense the arctic cold was the past few days. As I looked down the beach, it was covered in ice and snow for as far as I could see.
I use Yeti to test the strength of the shelf ice.
This is going to be a great day at the beach.
I'm going to let the pictures tell the story. We walked from Lake Street Beach to Marquette Park.
It was like a hike in the Arctic.
There were lots of caves and ice bergs breaking off because the water was flowing underneath the ice.
Just like the arctic icebergs, these are much bigger under the water.
I was amazed by the ice covered trees 30-50 feet from the shore. It must have been some storm when the temps dropped on Thursday & Friday.
Yeti had an easier time on the ice than I did. He has built in four wheel drive.
There are barely any dunes right on the beach anymore.
Nola & Christy weren't enjoying this winter beauty as much as me and Yeti.
There was a little bit of everything along this hike. Here is a relatively flat section...
...then a bunch of raised shelf ice...
...and what ever this might be called.
We finally caught up with the girls.
Obviously, I couldn't stop taking pictures. The ice has so many different shapes and forms. I would love to see a time lapse video of how all this was created.
More sand covered ice where the dune grass and tree roots were exposed.
This reminded me of Edvard Munch's "The Scream".
Someone's dock is frozen on Marquette Park beach.
This area has sand covered ice chunks.
The shoreline was so beautiful. I could have walked all the way to the Indiana Dunes State Park taking pictures but I had things to do at the house.
Snow covered dunes off the beach.
Ice covered everything we saw on the beach today.
Yeti with his "come on old man let's get moving" look.
More damage to the dunes on the beach.
The ice covered dune grass collapsed down off the dune. The past year has caused more destruction to the dunes than I have ever seen.
Chrissy showing everyone the 5 foot drop off on the dunes.
We finally found a low spot for the dogs to get a drink.
Yeti enjoying a cold one.
Ice balls on the beach.
It looks like everything was frozen very quickly which caused some very interesting ice sculptures.
We stopped at the Aquatorium on our way back to the car. A tribute to the Tuskegee Airman is located here.
“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.” Laura Ingalls Wilder
