Winter at the Beach

Monday was a good day to go to the beach to capture some winter shots. The slowly falling, oversized snowflakes had stopped, the sun had made a few weak appearances, but most important there was no gale force winds at the moment.

I went to Tunnel Park, a County Park/Beach about a mile from my house. You will see the reason for the name of the park shortly.

I couldn't drive into the park itself, the gates were locked, so I parked in the turn around of the driveway and trudged in through the walk-in gate.

Once I got to the playground area I started looking for interesting things to shoot. I tried a few playground pieces but I just wasn't feeling it. Not feeling inspired I moved on to the tunnel...

I couldn't find an exact age of this tunnel through the dune to the beach. I know that this park has been here since the 1930's. Walking through the tunnel to the beach I realized I haven't been through this tunnel in quite a few years.

Once through the tunnel I was looking out at Lake Michigan and the ice build up near the shore. I saw a vantage point I wanted to shoot from but I had to climb up a mound of wind blown sand and snow, then down into a little valley to get up to the top of another dune. I was a little apprehensive about climbing the dune, afraid I would fall. I kept thinking of my friend Cathy Sly, who fell on one of her recent adventures. Of course I did fall, but it was more like a graceful slide, down into the little valley area.

I made it to the top of the dune area I wanted to shoot from. I took some shots, but then I noticed the sand on my mitten that was getting on my camera, and my lens. I started freaking out about that , and that was it, the adventure was over. I did make it back to the tunnel without falling again.

Once back through the tunnel, I started to relax. I wiped the sand off and felt much better.

I visited one more area where the picnic tables were stored and where some stairs were from the cottage association above the park area. I would like to shoot these stairs and tunnel through the seasons. A fun new project with intention to work on.

*Joining Lissa for Walk and Click Wednesday.