sleeping bear dunes, and the frozen south bar lake, as seen from empire bluffs.

empire bluffs and an icy beach (near north bar lake).

the steep slopes of sleeping bear dunes, from halfway up.

looking south, towards empire bluffs.

frozen glen lake as seen from the top of sleeping bear dunes, and translucent water.

the edge the bluffs, and south manitou island.

a bald eagle soaring in the updraft, and a birch tree. this was probably the coolest moment of the day, i was sitting on the bluffs, with no humans in sight, and an eagle soaring over head.

lake michigan.

sleeping bear dunes, from below.

this warning is no joke, i thought the dunes would be easier to climb in the winter because they would be frozen hard so you wouldn't sink and slide like you do in the summer. however, the surface sand was still loose which caused you to slide backwards and the sand was frozen too hard to dig in and get a grip. so, the climb was slow and at times i was in danger of sliding all the way back down. i grabbed a couple of rocks and used them to dig into the sand (like pickaxes) to aid my climb. on the way down it was like skiing in shoes, except there was no good way to stop. i bit the dust a couple of times as i ran over rolling rocks that slid like marbles beneath my feet.

pyramid point.

a tree trunk growing at right angles.

dunes above lake michigan.

icy rocks.

icy shores.

ice that had the sand pulled out from under it.

skiing pierce stocking drive.

not rock, but frozen slabs of sand.

clear water.

the stream that connects north bar lake with lake michigan, the same thing looking in the other direction, and the frozen north bar lake. the stream was kind of interesting because it seemed to disappear on the beach where it flowed under the frozen sand/ice.

the "dune climb", where you can hike over miles of dunes to lake michigan.

leaves that fade but don't fall.