Ken caught the sunrise - click to see it bigger and check out Ken's snow slideshow!

This week's photo was taken by Mark Miller at Empire Beach. Last week we featured another of his photos from this spot - what a difference a few days and a Lake Effect storm can make!

Check it out big as the beach and compare it with last week's photo in Mark's slideshow.

Local author Jerry Dennis has a new book out. Titled The Windward Shore, it explores winter in Great Lakes country and the issues facing our beloved lakes, complete with illustrations from artist Glenn Wolff.

Outdoor writer Dave Richey says:

Jerry Dennis is a natural treasure, and he keeps writing new and more wonderful books. Fitting him into a specific category can be a bit difficult because he is at once, an outdoor writer, a conservationist, a nature lover, a dreamer, who develops words of magic that capture the soul and spirit of those of us lucky enough to live near the Great Lakes.

Winter around Lake Michigan may hardly seem a great topic for a book, but once Dennis sank his teeth into this tasty morsel that he and I both call home, and the result is the magic of this book about the area, the lives of nearby inhabitants, and stories painted by word pictures about this snow and ice-bound area. He teaches us about living in a log cabin along Lake Superior, more about desolate and wind-swept beaches, the power and the magnetic pull a winter storm has on those of us who stay here all winter rather than heading south with other snowbirds.

Dennis gracefully takes us along with him as we plod along frozen shorelines, listen as the surf pounds at shelves of ice, and we hear and feel the moan of an angry wind as it lashes the North County. We see, feel, hear, taste and touch winter along the Great Lakes, and we rejoice with the author as he examines everything about winter in this area.

Definitely check this book out - Jerry is one of the best! FYI, the book trailer was produced by Jerry's son Aaron of Stone Hut Studios - definitely a good idea to encourage your kids to be creative!

Jackson Atwater Thomson took this photo one year ago at Peterson Park, on the Lake Michigan shore near Northport. I don't have a photo from today, but let me assure you that snow is not something we have much of right now.

See it bigger and see more from the day right here.

The shipwrecks of the Manitou Passage have attracted underwater explorers for decades. Today, the underwater photography of these explorers allows landsmen to visit the shipwrecks from the comfort of a warm, dry chair. Ross Richardson has spent the last decade searching for and documenting shipwrecks off the coast of west Michigan. He is credited with discovering the location of the legendary steamer Westmoreland, which sank south of Sleeping Bear Point in 1854.

Offshore of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore lies the Manitou Passage. Although this 36-mile long waterway offers some protection from the open waters of Lake Michigan, even the waters of the passage can be treacherous. Many ships seeking shelter sank in this passage, hitting shoals and sandbars and running aground before being destroyed by the waves of Lake Michigan. There are 16 known shipwrecks in the passage and around the Manitou Islands, but there may be as many as 45 wrecks still undiscovered on the bottom. Many wrecks are well-preserved and offer clues on how they surrendered to the strength of the big lake in the days before advanced navigation when ships relied on basic tools like a compass, clock, and chart.

For more information, please call the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore at 231-326-5134 or visit their website at www.nps.gov/slbe. Also, check out their Facebook page!

The remains of a shipwreck can be seen if you stand on top of Pyramid Point with the sun at your back. In the water below lies what is left of the iron boiler of the steamship RISING SUN.

The date was October 29, 1917. Coming south through the Manitou Passage, the steamship RISING SUN was going south for the winter carrying farmers and their harvest from Summer Island. She strayed off course in high winds and snow and went aground at night on the Pyramid Point shoal. Passengers and crew struggled ashore through the frigid surf and sought help from farmers living in nearby Port Oneida. The Sleeping Bear Point Coast was alerted and arrived by surf boat the next morning to find only an elderly man still on board. He slept through the ship's grounding!

An interesting side note is that the Rising Sun was owned by the House of David, a religious organization based in Benton Harbor that is a fascinating story as well! You can also check out the location of the Rising Sun and other Leelanau shipwrecks on this diving map of Leelanau.

The photo comes from the excellent online photo collection of the Traverse Area Historical Society. It was taken on October 29, 1917 by Carrie (Labare) Craker. (From the left) Martha (Popa) Craker is shown holding her daughter Julia Craker, W. A. Craker and Clifford Craker. The remainder are unidentified.

What can you say except for "Take THAT doubters of the most beautiful place award!"?

Terry took this shot of North Bar Lake and Lake Michigan from the Pierce Stocking overlook. Check it out bigger and in his slideshow.

Great Lakes Week takes place October 11-14, 2011 and celebrates one of the world's true natural wonders, the five interconnected Great Lakes. Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior provide jobs, recreation and drinking water to more than 30 million people in the Great Lakes basin. Great Lakes Week is a new partnership to improve the places around the basin where people live, work, learn and play. This week's activities, meetings and conferences bring representatives of the U.S. and Canadian governments together with a broad coalition of public and private groups to highlight efforts to implement solutions for the lakes' most pressing problems. The event is headquartered in a single city for the first time ever and that city is Detroit.

Detroit Public Television (DPTV), in partnership with the International Joint Commission, the Great Lakes Commission, U.S. EPA, and Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, will be providing unprecedented access to the largest gathering of scientists, political voices, educators, environmentalists, and interested groups ever assembled to discuss the status and the future of the Great Lakes. Coverage starts today at noon at greatlakesnow.org!

Today's coverage kicks off at noon with an overview of Great Lakes Week, highlights of yesterday's Great Lakes Commission Meeting. Also on tap is the International Joint Commission of US and Canadian government agencies, a report on U.S. and Canadian efforts to restore the chemical, physical and biological diversity of the Great Lakes Basin, updates on critical issues from algae to aquatic invasive species and the Great Lakes Town Hall featuring top officials from both the U.S. and Canada answering on-site and virtual audience questions (Twitter hastag #AskGLW). Much more to follow tomorrow and Friday - check the schedule of events out for an idea.

photo credit: KAScott_20110930_3651fhenacb by Ken Scott/a>

Ever since Wednesday, August 17, Northern Michiganders have both embraced and grappled with the news that the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and surrounding region are considered the “most beautiful place in America” — at least according to 22 percent of 100,000 voters who participated in the ABC show Good Morning America’s online competition the second week of August.

Sleeping Bear narrowly beat out Asheville, N.C., for the top spot and also bested vista heavyweights, Newport, R.I., Cape Cod, Mass., Point Reyes, Calif., Aspen, Col., Sedona, Ariz., Destin, Fla., Lanikai Beach, Hawaii, and Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Those vanquished opponents are known worldwide for their beaches, their lobster, their sunsets, their skiing and their peaks. Suffice to say, we’re now on the map too...

Read on at the Glen Arbor Sun and read more about the Good Morning America award on Leelanau.com!

Photo Credit: The Southwest Entrance to the Manitou Passage by jimflix!

This Saturday (Sep 24) is National Public Lands Day. NPLD is the nation's largest, single-day volunteer event for public lands in the United States, and last year. The impact is huge, especially in this era of declining budgets and last year's 170,000 volunteers worked at over 2,080 sites in every state:

• Removing an estimated 450 tons of trash
• Collecting an estimated 20,000 pounds of invasive plants
• Building and maintaining an estimated 1,320 miles of trails
• Planting an estimated 100,000 trees, shrubs and other native plants
• Contributing an estimated $15 million to improve public lands across the country

The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is inviting you to be a part of this by helping to clean up beaches in the Lakeshore on Saturday from 12-3 PM. Admission to all national parks, including the National Lakeshore, is free Saturday, and volunteers will receive a voucher to use for entrance to various parks at a later date.