The pictures of the ice mountains forming on Lake Huron this winter do no justice to how incredible they actually are.

I'm a sucker for a weekend road trip so when I noticed everyone posting about the ice mountains near Au Gres on Lake Huron, I was in. Sometimes my family is a little more hesitant than I am when it comes to "adventures." I knew this one would be a little more difficult of a sell considering the conditions. I anticipated the conversation going something like this.

Me: "Hey guys, we should go see these huge ice mountains on Lake Huron!"

Them: "How far away is it? Are they outside? Isn't it cold? Do you actually know where they are?"

Me: "Only an hour (slight lie). Yes and yes . . . aaaaaannnnd I sort of know where they are. BUT I booked us a room in Tawas with a heated pool and hot tub!"

**I had to put that part in or I was dead in the water.

After some short convincing, and admitting that I already paid for the room, we were all in. I didnt have much to go on when it came to finding the actual ice mountains other than I knew Au Gres was not a big town, so we had to find them eventually. Luckily, we dropped a pin in the right place (on the second try) and got there.

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I realize that this is not much to go on, but trust me. Drop a pin in that spot on your GPS and when you're driving through what seems to be a private neighborhood on the water, you're almost there. If you get terribly lost, just ask someone. They've gotten used to the traffic coming in and out.

Once you climb down to the water, you'll be treated to an amazing view like this.

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It's hard to grasp just how big these things are until you see the scale. My kids threw all caution out the window and started to scale the huge ice blocks.

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They are easily 30 feet up in the air, built by slabs of crystal blue/green ice that measure two to four feet thick. Everything was so smooth and perfect it seemed crazy that the blocks were just randomly thrown there by mother nature.

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We spent the better part of an hour climbing the ice blocks, and each one was just as incredible as the next.

We lost all track of how cold it actually was until the sun started to go down. The only thing left to do was sit down and enjoy the view one last time.

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I've lived in Michigan my entire life, and love that there are still so many things to see for the first time with my family. I've heard people say that these types of ice mountains have not happened in over 80 years! I don't know if that's true, but either way, I am so happy that we were able to see them for ourselves.

I strongly recommend that you take your family or even some friends and do the same. You won't be disappointed.

Even if you have to bribe them with a hot tub afterward.

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