Kollodge Gallery

About the Image:

About 4 miles out of Finland, Minnesota, on county Road #6 on the way to Little Marais, there is access to part of the Superior Hiking Trail known as “Section 13.”  After searching, with disappointment, for a couple days for the legendary Minnesota “fall color” in October 2011 around Ely and up to Crane Lake in northern Minnesota, Kathy and I  basically got skunked until on the way back home to Duluth.

We found and hiked “Section 13″ for about 3 hours, climbing to an overview of Lake Superior, but stopping what seemed like every 100 feet for another irresistible photo opportunity of “fall color.”  At the top of our climb, we barely had time for a short rest.  Neither of us realized how much elevation we had gained nor how far County Road #6 was from us, barely being able to detect a car moving along it with the naked eye.  The sun was sinking quickly and this was not the kind of trail you would want to negotiate with a flashlight.

On the hike down, the dropping sun was no longer bathing the entire forest, but only accentuating snippets of color occasionally. The main illumination came from the clear sky thereby giving the gray tree bark a wonderful blue tinge and some reds were nudged noticeably toward magenta.  Those few hours along “Section 13″ easily made the whole trip worth the effort.

This image was made with a Canon 5D II camera with a Canon EOS 70-200mm f4.0 “L” IS lens mounted on a Monfrotto  Carbon tripod.