A couple of years ago I went on a naturalist-led field trip to visit the Blue Hills Felsenmeer in north western Wisconsin. Isn’t it awesome? Here’s another shot of the formation from the other end with our group for some scale -
Isn’t that incredible? It’s looked almost exactly like that since the last glacier covered Wisconsin. It’s actually called the Wisconsin Glaciation and lasted from approximately 75,000 to 11,000 years ago. In the US it covered the Upper Midwest through Montana and Washington to the west and New England to the east. Canada was basically subsumed by the ice sheet. There is lots of geological evidence of glacier activity in Wisconsin. This is just one of them.
Technically it’s not a felsenmeer which is a German term meaning basically ‘sea of rocks’. A true felsenmeer is associated with mountainous regions (not Wisconsin) and the rocks are formed by breaking up due to frost and freezing. They lie on much shallower slopes than the 25 degrees here in the Blue Hills. Instead we should call this a talus.
A talus is just a rock deposit. It forms when a glacier melts and re-freezes over time. Snow and ice slowly melt under the rocks so they settle gently. In the end they fit tightly together and form a stable slope. It’s pretty fascinating and the process takes hundreds or thousands of years. A scientific survey was done about 10 years ago. Ground-penetrating radar was used to discover exactly how the area was formed. This particular felsenmeer (there is another one nearby) is 300 meters long and 25 meters deep (985 feet and 80 feet).
The temperature can be 10 degrees different from the top to the bottom, and I keep reeling at the span of geological time. It’s how long it takes for plants to take hold. The first wave are the lichens, mosses and bryophytes.
Is this a composite: No
Handheld and probably a CPL
Shot #1 -
Shot #2-
Slot #3 -
Lightroom for initial RAW processing - lens correction, clarity & texture, white and black points and a little wb correction. Into Ps to remove some distractions and mess with levels in the TK8 panel. Some dodging and burning.
I never would have guessed how massive it all is without your image with the people. And from Washington to New England no less. Wow! Thanks for the geology lesson.
Incredible story to go with this unique and interesting image. I feel like I’ve learned a lot from your description Kristen. Thanks for the background. I can see the struggle to take hold for that little guy in the foreground. It doesn’t look like there is much soil so probably not many nutrients either. Tough little tree to survive down that gulley bottom. Balance looks really good to me and I really like that tall, straight tree just right of center. It adds a lot of visual interest. Thanks for sharing
An amazingly unique place Kris, thank you for sharing this with us. And thanks for providing the image with the people in your group, the scale of this place is amazing. I enjoyed reading the backstory to this too, glaciers create a lot more things than U-shaped valleys.
I’d suggest an alternate title “The Valley of Broken Ankles”
I grew up in a town on the Connecticut River in New Hampshire. It was not until I took a geography course in college that I learned that the Connecticut River is the remnant of Lake Hitchcock, a lake formed over 15,000 years ago by the receding glacier. This lake stretched from northern Vermont down to Hartford, CT.
This is an amazing rock field, Kris. I especially like #2 because the foreground is filled with the rocks and the small collection of ferns in the LRC (the people may help set the scale, but I think if it would be equally good without the people). Glaciers do leave behind lots of interesting “stories”.
Thanks @Mark_Muller, @Ed_McGuirk, @David_Haynes & @Mark_Seaver - it is a really startling place to view. You come from a regular mixed forest right into this giant valley of rock. And yeah, watch your step because ankles are at risk! The thing that killed me the most was the slow progression of soil development - the plants you see are the only ones to grown on the slopes for 10,000 years or something. So incredible. The place is virtually untouched and has been a State Natural Area for a long time. It’s a little difficult to get to, but worth it.
