Ice Along Lake Michigan's Shore

Tom Gill captured this amazing photo of ice on this St. Joseph, MI lighthouse.

I'm in Chicago this week and between appointments this afternoon, I managed to squeeze in a short run along the shoreline of Lake Michigan.

I was mesmerized by the motion of the ice near the Chicago Yacht Club, so I took this very short film of it. I love the way the shapes collide and then come apart, and all the various consistencies of ice: water to slush to solid icebergs.

I'm sure the folks who live in the Windy City thought it was crazy that I stopped to film this, but it kinda made my day. And in any case, it turns out there's a whole film genre of Lake Michigan ice! Take this example, from the Chicago Tribune: huge ice balls washing up on shore!

Photographer Tom Gill has built his career in part on photographing Lake Michigan ice. This post's opening photo was taken by him, as well as the stunning image below:

Photo by Tom Gill; visit his blog here, and his Flickr page here.

Flying home to mild, dry Colorado, I'll see you on the trail!