Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Spring Photos

The Gitche Gumee Museum will open Monday, May 19th.  Hours will be:

May 19-31 & June-- Daily 2-5pm; Saturdays Noon to 5pm
July & August      --  Daily 11am-6pm; Sundays 2-5pm  NEW HOURS
September           -- Daily 2-5pm; Saturdays Noon to 5pm


The other day I drove to Gwinn to purchase and pick up a rock collection.  Around 30 boxes, filled single layer with mineral specimens, were found in a hidden cubby hole.  The rockhound passed away a few years ago and the spouse did not know about the boxes until they were found by a contractor.  Apparently his best specimens were not included in the secret stash, but there are still some cool specimens and a lot of rough rock that some of you lapidary people may be interested in.  Thanks to Sue for offering the collection to the museum and for making it affordable.  It will take me a while to sort and price all the specimens, but I'll have some out for the museum's opening.  In fact I'll be building new shelves and re-arranging the gift shop to make room not only for specimens from the collection, but also other specimens that I've purchased to sell this season.

On the way back to Grand Marais, I of course took H58.  As a regular celebration of spring, I drove in some of the access roads into the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. These photos were taken last Tuesday.  More of the snow has melted since then.  As of earlier this week, I was excited to drive all the way into Twelve Mile Beach.  Six days previous the road was still blocked with snow.  I was only able to drive to the first campsite.  The snow beyond there was still deep.

There was not any snow on the beach, but there were icebergs hung up on the sand bar just off shore.

Next I was able to pull into the day use parking lot at the Hurricane River.

When I took a photo looking east, I noticed the ghost freighter.

Next stop:  the Logslide.

The photo below was taken looking straight down from the overlook at the Logslide.

I also stopped at Sullivan's Landing (overlook parking between Twelve Mile Beach and the Hurricane).

Then I arrived home to my muddy driveway.  Notice there still are patches of snow.