Minnesota Polar Vortex 2021

Almost a year into the pandemic, we were desperate to take a photography vacation. We didn’t yet feel comfortable with air travel, so I looked for a place closer to home. I had seen some beautiful winter images of the North Shore of Lake Superior. The possibility of shore ice also piqued my interest. We don’t usually take snowy, cold vacations, but we were up for the challenge.

I booked a couple of vacation rentals and planned out photography options for our time in the north. We planned to do snowshoe hikes, scenic stops along the lake, and to use my new drone for some winter aerial video. So, the trip was set for February 4-11, 2021.

As the trip got closer, I checked lake ice maps and the weather forecast daily. The forecasted high temperatures kept dropping. It was going to be a very cold trip. Not just cold, but polar vortex cold.

The plot on the right shows the temps from Feb 1-20, 2021 (weather.gov) in Grand Marais, MN. The blue bars show the observed temps each day (min to max). The sharp drop in temps on Feb 5th was the start of the polar vortex. Nighttime lows approached -20°F by Feb 7th.

We started our drive north, delayed a day due to a blizzard in Iowa, on February 5th. With extreme cold in the forecast, I didn’t want my glasses fogging up and freezing, so we stopped in Duluth to pick up snow goggles. This was the most important thing we did on the whole trip (foreshadowing).

We made a couple of stops along the Lake Superior shore before arriving at our rental for the next 3 nights. We stayed at a cute little cabin right on the shore of Lake Superior. It had a big, picture window overlooking the lake. For sunset, we drove about 15 minutes north to Grand Marais and took photos at Artists Point and along the breakwall.

Grand Marais Lighthouse at sunset
40mm, ISO 200, f/6.3, 1/100 sec

For our first full day, we started with sunrise in Grand Marais at Artist Point. Because of the extreme cold, we got to witness sea smoke! Sea smoke forms when extremely cold air (thanks to the polar vortex, in this case) moves over warmer water. The sea smoke added an element of drama to all of our early morning photos on this trip and made embracing the bone-chilling temperatures all the more worthwhile.

Next we drove north to Hollow Rock and had planned to go to Grand Portage State Park after…but we didn’t make it that far. After taking photos at Hollow Rock, I started walking back to the car. Jess was 50ft or so ahead of me. The crampons I had on my hiking boots were helping me to stay upright on the icy ground…until one of the claws from the one on my right foot caught a strap on my left foot and instantly sent me face first into the rocky beach. I won’t go into more details, because honestly, it was a bit traumatizing. My snow goggles did a phenomenal job at keeping my eyes and face protected. A trip to the ER confirmed that everything was ok and that I would just have a black eye for several weeks (yay). The next day and a half consisted of us lounging around the cabin, me icing my eye, watching episodes of The Office, and watching the lake out the window.

Hollow Rock
42mm, ISO 100, f/11, 1/800 sec

After a couple of days of rest, I was ready to get back out to take some photos. My snow goggles now not only protected me from the cold and my glasses fogging up, they shielded my eye from being seen by anyone else, haha. We stopped at Grand Marais to get some more pics of the sea smoke and then started our drive south to spend our final 3 nights in a cabin about 20 minutes north of Two Harbours.

Artist Point
24mm, ISO 100, f/13, 1/1600 sec

Black Beach was one stop I really enjoyed because of the ice! I loved photographing the ice pancakes in the shallow water. The black sand at this beach is not a natural occurrence. It’s actually a result of taconite (low-grade iron ore) tailings that were dumped off shore by mining companies several years ago. The morning that we did sunrise here, it was nearly -20°F. We had on layers and layers and hand warmers in our pockets and shoes. We were able to withstand the cold for about 30 minutes before we bailed for the car.

Black Beach
44mm, ISO 160, f/7.1, 1/250 sec

Black Beach
55mm, ISO 160, f/7.1, 1/250 sec

Black Beach
33mm, ISO 160, f/7.1, 1/1250 sec

During our last couple of days we explored Split Rock Lighthouse, hiked up to Palisade Head from the lower parking lot (the road to the upper lot was closed), hiked along a little trail for a closer view of Shovel Point, and photographed along the Two Harbors breakwall. The sea smoke was mesmerizing to watch from Palisade Head! We also checked out the frozen Gooseberry Falls and a couple of short trails around Tettegouche State Park.

Shovel Point from Palisade Head
124mm, ISO 160, f/8, 1/320 sec

Two Harbors breakwall
207mm, ISO 100, f/7.1, 1/250 sec

On our final morning, we woke up to a balmy -27°F at the rental cabin. It was COLD! It warmed up a few degrees as we drove closer to the lakeshore. We photographed sunrise from Stoney Point. Luckily, we didn’t have to walk too far from the car to take photos. After Stoney Point our final stop was at the Duluth North Pier Lighthouse to get photos of the lighthouse with the sea smoke.

Although I had a couple of down days on this trip, we came away with some really nice winter images and got to explore an area that was new to us. The map below shows the locations of some of the places highlighted above. There are SO many places I would like to explore up here, especially when there is fall color, which is known to be stunning up on the North Shore.

Thanks for reading!

Minnesota Polar Vortex 2021

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