I lived in Michigan my first 22 years of life and then returned in 2006 and I must admit I never knew we had such beautiful blue ice that could form in the Mackinac Straits.

Well thanks to the people at Mlive and Tori Burley of Mackinaw City they have opened my eyes to such beauty.  It is a shame that we live our lives in the fast lane and scramble from here to there and never really seek out the beauty within our reach.  For me it is only a 4 ½ to 5 hour drive.

Tori Burley, a freelance photographer, is a resident of Mackinaw City and she told the Mlive reporter that she has been waiting for seven years to see and take pictures on this blue ice.

I must it admit it is certainly a site to see, and you can see them by clicking on the Mlive hyperlink above.  There are also pictures from another photographer who lives n the area, her name is Jennifer Cole, of Jen Cole Photography.

What makes the ice so blue that is what I asked?  The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Lake Superior states on the Facebook page that:

Ice only appears blue when it is sufficiently consolidated so that air bubbles do not interfere with the passage of light…Without the scattering effect of bubbles, light can penetrate ice undisturbed. In ice, the absorption of light at the red end of the spectrum is six times greater than at the blue end. Six feet into the ice, most of the light in the red spectrum can’t be seen. A lack of reflected red wavelengths produces the color blue in the human eye.

It is a beautiful site and I recommend you check out the pictures in the Mlive article.

We need to slow our lives down and drink the coffee as we are seeing the beauty around us and within reach of us.

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