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Kris Stewart and his family have owned the Toonerville Trolley and the Hiawatha riverboat for over 30 years. If you want to see wild Michigan black bears and have fun with the entire family, take a day to travel on the small Toonerville Trolley train and then float down the Tahquamemon River on the Hiawatha riverboat all the way to the Upper Tahquamemon Falls. Kris has a wealth of knowledge and is an expert navigator and ferryboat captain.

Ludington Shining Bright

The shadow of the 112-foot-tall Big Point Sable Lighthouse is cast on dune land north of the lighthouse. The pristine view northward from atop the light tower reveals part of the thousands of acres of protected state and federal land along the Lake Michigan shoreline north of the lighthouse.

My Home Town

Make the Journey

Muskegon History

What a day to be at Grand Traverse Lighthouse at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula. Both the 1852 light station and the fall color are picture perfect this morning. I am impressed with how well maintained the buildings and grounds are.

I always enjoy trying to find a new foreground for my lighthouse photographs. I was pumped when I found these colorful bushes near Lake Michigan as the foreground at Grand Traverse Lighthouse.

Part of Me

Surfer Saeth Gronberg rides a Lake Michigan wave past the Frankfort, Michigan lighthouse on a sunny winter afternoon.

Standup paddle surfer Larry Bordine cruises past the ice-covered Frankfort, Michigan breakwater . Larry is among the hardy Michiganders that make surfing a four-season adventure on Lake Michigan.

Waves rush ashore at Point Betsie Light Station on a late winter afternoon. Point Betsie is one of Michigan's most distinctive and beautiful lighthouses.

We always tell our workshop students, before we arrive at Point Betsie Lighthouse, that they won’t believe their eyes when they see the tropical color of Lake Michigan water. Once we get on location and start shooting photos at Point Betsie, I love seeing the student’s reaction to the color of the water. Then, we teach them how to capture that color with their cameras. It never gets old.

With the snow, ice, sunshine, and haze, this aerial photograph of Ludington looks like the old painting of the Ludington harbor that has hung in the local restaurant, The Grand, on Rath Avenue for decades. I have always loved that painting and now I have created my own modern version with a camera.

The sand dunes at Big Point Sable were formed several thousand years ago. Wind and water have been changing them ever since. I took this aerial photograph more than 20 years ago, when rising Lake Michigan water levels were threatening to wash Big Point Sable Lighthouse away. Most of the ponds visible between dunes in this scene were dry when I last explored this region.

Sable Skies

As I hung out the open window of a small airplane this morning over Big Sable Point Lighthouse at Ludington State Park, I was struck by how cool the shadow of the lighthouse was. The shadow reminded me of learning about sun dials in elementary school.

Sea-Rays