Macinac Island -- Post 4

Today I'll continue posting pictures from my long weekend spent on Macinac Island.

All around the island there are statutes and architectural detail.  Here is a picture at a little fountain pool.

Several home owners decorated their trees.  Here is an example.

One of the local residents...

A statute at the Butterfly House.

Bikes and horses....

Views from the ridge overlooking town.

Macinac Island -- Post 3

Today I'll continue with posting pictures from Macinac Island. For this time of year the weather has been perfect. We have had crisp blue skies with temperatures in the 40s, although the wind has been a bit chilly.

We walked around Mission Point Resort down the road the circles the island.  A good part of Macinac Island is reserved for the state park.

Instead of signs directing automobiles, on the island there are signs directing horses and bikes.

There are sedimentary cliffs circling the island.

As well as some giant boulders that have broken off the cliffs or were left by the glaciers.

Freighters go by the island all day long.

And then there is Arch Rock......

Another boulder with a tree growing on it.

There are more flowers for this time of year than we have seen the past six years that we have been coming to the island.

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Mackinac Island -- Post 2

It was an absolutely gorgeous day here on Mackinac Island, as it was yesterday.  Here is a picture from yesterday when we were waiting for our luggage.

Since the island is still "waking up" from the winter, at this time of year they will let us push our own cart.  As many of you know, you are not allowed to drive cars on the island.  So you either hire the horse teams, or you do the work on your own.

Some of us pushed the cart to our rental, which allowed us to ride back to the dock when we returned the cart.

The architecture on the island.....

The constant clipity clop of horses is very soothing.

More architectural detail...

When we went for a walk, there were these black and white ducks.  We saw several groups of three wherein two males were fighting for the attention of a female.

Mackinac Island

For twenty five years a group of friends and I have been getting together. This is around the sixth year that we have gone to Mackinac Island.

But yesterday morning before we left, we had some April snow...

It is around a hundred mile drive from Grand Marais to Saint Ignace, where we catch the ferry to get over to the island.

It was a bit rough out in the open water, but I was still able to get this picture of the bridge.

Rocks Close Up

Yesterday I was way too busy to get out and exercise. So for today's blog posting, I am going to include a few close up photographs of Lake Superior beach rocks. These are pictures I will be including in the online rockhounding adventure on beach rocks.


We will begin with igneous intrusive (cooled inside the Earth) -- granite.

Closer....

Closer.....

Extrusive igneous (cooled on the surface of the Earth) basalt.

Closer....

Closer....

Igneous rhyolite that formed from material ejected in a volcanic pyroclastic flow.

Closer....

Closer....

Munising formation sandstone....

Doesn't it look like Lake Superior beach sand?

Jacobsville sandstone (1 billion years old)...

Closer...

Munising formation sandstone....

Closer...