Was not planning on attending the commemorative beacon lighting at Split Rock this year due to having seen it many times before and having a full agenda on the horizon. But just as I was packaging up my last order of the day, the chances of seeing the northern lights were increasingly improving. So I lured Josie into the truck, got to the post office just before close and took that hour and a half drive down to the north shore for a chance of capturing a scene.
There’s about a two hour window of the beacon being lit and a lot of patience that goes into contending with everything else that comes into play, from the sheer amount of visitors also wanting to see and photograph this, to the very bright moon on this fantastic evening.
Having photographed the northern lights with the lighthouse before, I had an idea of where I wanted to set up. Along the highway I could see the glow of the northern lights, and the beacon shining brightly at the top of the tower. But as I arrived on the pebble beach, I could no longer see that beam of light illuminating the waters of Lake Superior. It was 6:43… perhaps they turned off the beam early. As I began the walk back to my truck, a woman with kids in tow asked me if I could see the light from where I was. As I replied no, I wonder if they turned it off, she said that she had just left the tower and they were leaving it on until 7 o’clock. So now I hustled back to the truck, drove to the campground and very quickly made my way down to that portion of the beach. To my delight, there it was! The beacon was still going around and the northern lights were beginning to form. Of course, the beacon was turned off just as the colors started to pop, but it was a wonderful way to end the day!
By the images, you can see how utterly calm the lake was; quite unusual for November in Minnesota. So as the moon continued to wax, I took my chances of heading down there again in hopes of capturing some big waves crashing along the rocky shore. Indeed I did, and was even treated to watching gulls eat the berries from a Mountain Ash.
