Tales from Northern Michigan #5

Tales from Northern Michigan is a new feature that will appear irregularly here on the blog. The point of it is to share cool stuff from one of my favorite areas- northern Michigan. As many of you are aware Michigan actually has an Upper and Lower Peninsula, linked by the Mackinac Bridge, and I'll be showcasing the area that we in lower Michigan affectionately call "Up North." It could be anything from music to wildlife to bookstores- you never know what you'll find Up North, so who knows what will turn up here? 

So without further ado, here's a look at the beauty of northern Michigan. 

This video is amazing and shows the ice bridge to Mackinac Island. Keep in mind the only way to the island once the straits freeze is by snowmobile, plane or ferry (if the ferry's running). So they mark the safe route over the ice (in other words, the ice that is thick enough) with Christmas trees so the snowmobilers stay on course. I guess it gets pretty scary sometimes! 

This video shows them in transit over the ice and when they reach the island it's kind of amazing to think they just snowmobiled over ALL that frozen water.   

  

Here's time lapse photography of the aurora borealis or northern lights.  

Night time ice skating, as seen from above with lights!

Here's a snowmobile fire on ice bridge.

And here are the ice caves that form on Lake Michigan when it gets really cold. And yes, these are real.