Superior Dome Show and Beach Photos

Today I'll post some photos from the Marquette show, as well as the rest of the pictures from my beach hike the other night.

The Superior Dome at Northern Michigan University is the largest wooden structure east of the Mississippi.  It is a great venue for an art show.

My booth...

This agate window is an abstract beach scene...

Here are the rest of the pictures from the beach and climb up the Sable Falls steps. 

At the mouth of Sable River, the whole corner of dune gave away at the end of the winter.

Sable River...

The old steps go up to the right.  The new replacement steps go off to the left.

They are almost done with construction.  They have just the top landing left to build.

Lake Superior Beach Hike

The other night after hiking through the woods and into the dunes, I arrived at the bluff over Lake Superior.  It was certainly a calm and beautiful evening.

Here is a close up of a small piece of ancient drift wood that was laying on top of the sand.  Some of this "ghost forest" wood is several thousand years old.

Then I decided to go down the bluff to the beach.  Here is a photo looking back up at some of the birch trees.

The waves of Lake Superior are forever rearranging the rocks on the beach.

Another shot looking back up the bluff.  This time of year you have to always have an ear and an eye looking up since rocks are continuously working their way loose and tumbling down.

The ridges in the dunes are continuously wearing down, only to  reform with runoff from spring rains.  Of course in Grand Marais, we really have had little to no spring rain.

There are sections of the beach west of Sable River that have lots of rock.

Trillium Trail Hike

I have spent the last two days making mineral art for the show this weekend in Marquette. I must admit that it was hard to switch gears since I would prefer to continue work on the online rockhounding adventures, but once I got into it I enjoyed having the soldering iron on again.

Today's blog update is dedicated to my son, Jonathan. I received the mother's day card he sent yesterday. It is the nicest and most heartfelt card I have ever received. Thanks, Jonathan, for making my day.

I did make myself hike yesterday, even though I ended up having to stay up very late to finish the art. Actually, I didn't quite finish. I still have to assemble the night lights and the bird sun catchers.

Around 7pm last night I parked at Sable Visitors' Center and walked the trail next to Sable River. The trilliums are in full bloom.

One of my favorite things in the spring is to observe and document signs of the forest "waking up" after a long winter (or short mild winter as was the case for Grand Marais this year).  It is all in the detail....

Then I decided to get off trail and I climbed up an old dune formation.  Up on top there was a long ridge....

Then I headed across the foot bridge into the dunes.  Late evening is a great time to document the sand dune detail...

Lake Superior Agates

There has been continued progress on the "project." Over the last couple of days I took hundreds of pictures of Lake Superior agates for the online rockhounding adventure. For today's posting, I'll include just a few.

Many people come into the museum and assume that the majority of agates found on the beach are "hidden" by a thick husk.  The opposite is actually true.  Not only have these loose agates survived the waves, ice, and sand of the Lake Superior basin over the last 10,000 years, but they have survived glaciers and other geologic events for hundreds of thousands of years.  So for the most part Lake Superior agates have fractured surfaces that now expose their beauty, or they have other "clues" that give them away so that persistent agate hunters can find them.

The agate below has fractured surfaces as well as obvious banding.

Botryoidal structure shows itself in the following agate, as well as some banding...

Gray and red color, conchoidal fractures, and banding show on the next agate...

Pit marked surface, gray color, some iron oxide staining show on the next agate...

Conchoidal fractures, banding, and red color show on this agate...

Gray chalcedony color, pit marked surface....

Translucency, waxy luster, limonite yellow coating, gray color, structure all show on the next agate...

Yellow limonite coating, structure, waxy luster, gray color...

Conchoidal fracture, red color, banding....

Sable Falls Area Hike--Post 2

Today I will post the second half of the pictures I took while hiking around the Sable Falls area.

The fruit trees are beginning their blooming process -- early.

After walking along the river, I doubled back, headed into the dunes, and walked to the bluff.

Then I decided to walk down the bluff...

Here is a photo looking back up to the bluff showing where I descended.

A beach goer...

Then I walked up the falls.

They are nearing completion of the new section of steps at the top of the falls. 

Here is a video I took of the falls.