Gooseberry Falls State Park Middle Falls

This week’s weather has not been typical for February in northern Minnesota

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Gooseberry Falls State Park Upper Falls

With temperatures in the 50’s and an inch of rain, the North Shore rivers flowed like an April spring runoff.

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Ice Covered Break Wall 001

The temperature dropped at the end of the week and the wind gusted as high as 50 mph. Waves coming across the Grand Marais Harbor caused the spray to freeze on the shrubs and trees along the outer break wall. It was some of the most beautiful ice all winter.

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Ice Covered Break Wall 002

This one looked like a group of walruses climbing the rocks.

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Ice Covered Break Wall 003

Hundreds of the trees were covered with ice.

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Ice Covered Break Wall 004

The wind was strong enough that the icicles on the break wall cables formed diagonally instead of straight down. I was hoping to come back and take another photo at sunrise or sunset but just after I took these photos two young men on fat tired bikes rode out on the break wall and proceeded to smash all of the beautiful icicles.

What a disappointment. Many of Grand Marais’ visitors could have had the opportunity to marvel at their beauty for several days. I talked to the young men afterwards and they apologized. They didn’t realize that they were doing anything wrong and just stated that it was fun to smash icicles.

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