Intergrative Natural History of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Part 1: One Swath of the Grand Sable Dunes and Lake Superior Coast | Michigan, USA
Looking east-northeastward from the Log Slide Site.
The Lake Superior littoral of Michigan's Upper Peninsula provides some of North America's most spectacular shoreline views. While other portions of the coast feature rocky cliffs, this area is home to an immensity of sand in the form of dunes perched high above the water's edge.
Some sense of the loftiness of this 300-ft (90-m), sand-draped slope can be gained by using the mature Paper Birches (Betula papyrifera) for scale.
The perched dunes are the result of a complex succession of Pleistocene icesheet advances and retreats, fluctuating lake levels, stabilized and destabilized plant communities, and the accumulation of aeolian sand deposits brought by the prevailing northwesterly winds.
Intergrative Natural History of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Part 1: One Swath of the Grand Sable Dunes and Lake Superior Coast | Michigan, USA
Looking east-northeastward from the Log Slide Site.
The Lake Superior littoral of Michigan's Upper Peninsula provides some of North America's most spectacular shoreline views. While other portions of the coast feature rocky cliffs, this area is home to an immensity of sand in the form of dunes perched high above the water's edge.
Some sense of the loftiness of this 300-ft (90-m), sand-draped slope can be gained by using the mature Paper Birches (Betula papyrifera) for scale.
The perched dunes are the result of a complex succession of Pleistocene icesheet advances and retreats, fluctuating lake levels, stabilized and destabilized plant communities, and the accumulation of aeolian sand deposits brought by the prevailing northwesterly winds.