Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State ParkOntonagon County, Michigan
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360° sphere 01 · The Overview Effect
Lake of the Clouds
A lake held between two ridges, the escarpment’s bare rock above it, and Lake Superior waiting at the edge of the sky.
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Field note · Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park
The whole arrangement, at once.
Lake of the Clouds lies at about 1,076 feet in a valley between parallel ridges of the Porcupine Mountains. Most people meet it from the overlook on the escarpment, looking down. This sphere was taken from the air above the valley, so the parts arrive together instead of one at a time.
At the lake’s west end, white water spills beside a footbridge where the Carp River leaves the lake and braids west through wet meadow. Across the valley, the escarpment shows its bare rock face and a pale apron of fallen stone. Beyond that ridge, Lake Superior lies flat and blue to the north.
Turn slowly and the valley reads as a single system: the lake that collects, the river that carries, the ridge that holds, and the great lake that receives.