At the shore of an inland sea Aug 31, 2020

At the shore of an inland sea

We"re looking out from a cavern at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan"s Upper Peninsula. The area"s named for its colorful sandstone cliffs, which stretch for 15 miles along the shores of the largest of the Great Lakes, Lake Superior. As groundwater leaches out of the rocks, it carries minerals such as iron, manganese, and copper that paint the cliffs in shades of red, pink, black, green, and other colors. The park itself, which is roughly the size of five Manhattans, boasts waterfalls, beaches, and rock formations—some resembling human profiles and castle turrets—carved over time by relentless waves and the unforgiving weather of Yooper Country.

© Kenneth Keifer/Getty Images

palette

Today in History

Aug 31, 2018Let’s have a ball
Aug 31, 2019Walk the line
Aug 31, 2021Bridge over the River Tara
Aug 31, 2022Blue linckia sea stars in Papua New Guinea
Aug 31, 2023Saguaro cacti, Ironwood Forest National Monument, Arizona
Aug 31, 2024Tassili n’Ajjer, Sahara, Algeria
Aug 31, 2025Scotts Bluff National Monument, Gering, Nebraska

More Desktop Wallpapers:

Nov 10, 2024Caribbean flamingos, Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico
Dec 18, 2021Full moon
Sep 8, 2019Just a couple of yellow-billed hornbills
Jan 23, 2018Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in Brazil
Mar 8, 2021A notorious advocate for women
Apr 13, 2020Floating temples in the Land of Smiles
Nov 7, 2020National Bison Day
Feb 10, 2018Bonifacio on the island of Corsica, France
Jul 23, 2023Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka
Jun 5, 2021Bird s-eye view on World Environment Day
Jan 16, 2021Oh, to sleep under the northern lights
Mar 11, 2019You re feeling sleepy
May 25, 2020Here we mark the price of freedom
Jan 12, 2025Crescent-tail bigeye fish, Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Jul 26, 2025International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem
Aug 9, 2021A tribute to the ancestors
Aug 19, 2018Oh, the places you’ll go
Jul 2, 2023Its Halfway Day!
Feb 12, 2025Celebrating Charles Darwin
Jun 27, 2025Splendid leaf frog
Dec 15, 2022Borovets ski resort in Bulgaria
Feb 6, 2019Watch your step
Jun 4, 2018Lighting it up for Vivid Sydney
Aug 11, 2025Village of Santa Maddalena, Dolomites, Italy
Feb 18, 2020Too awesome to be a planet
Jan 28, 2026Whanganui National Park, Retaruke, New Zealand
Aug 30, 2018Castle Frankenstein in Darmstadt, Germany
Jun 12, 2025Big Bend National Park in Texas turns 81
Feb 11, 2023Milky Way over Zabriskie Point, California
Mar 5, 2020The desert blooms