Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Au Sable Point Beach -- Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Today I will post the rest of the pictures from my hike on Au Sable Point. I originally planned on walking down to the lighthouse, but once on the beach I decided to walk east to see how far back towards the log slide I could get. It has been a while since I walked this section of beach.

Although it was chilly, it was a beautiful day to be on the Lake Superior beach.


The patterns in the Jacobsville sandstone are amazing.




There are a lot of boulders on this stretch of beach. Over the millenniums the waves and ice of Lake Superior have pushed them across the shelves of sandstone.


Due to the low water levels, it is almost possible to walk the beach all the way to the base of the Log Slide.  There is one corner that requires you to walk out in the water, which I did not do.  This summer Ii am going to give it a try.





 

When I arrived to the corner, I turned back to continue west.  Then I spotted this huge six-foot in diameter boulder stuck in the side of the bluff left over from the post-glacial Lake Nipissing.  It is a glacial erratic dumped here over 10,000 years ago.  There were glacial scrapes on the boulder verifying that it was moved by the glacier.  I decided to use the boulder as a stepping "stone" to climb up the bluff. 

I knew that the trail was not that far inland, and at first I followed a little creek.


But then the vegetation became very thick.  It was quite a challenge to find my way through it.


Finally, I made my way back to the trail and headed back to my car.

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