Over the next four weeks I will share my own photos of the St. Croix River and the streams that flow into it from the past 12 months. Over the course of the series, photos will be included from many parts of the river and its watershed. These images are offered in gratitude for the river, its tributaries, and the readers and supporters of St. Croix 360. – Greg

The St. Croix River is scenic in all seasons. Winter is when it is wildest. Snow covers the ground and the air is sharp and dry. Wind blows across ice and deep cold comes for long visits. There are usually few people witnessing its winter wonders, offering the sort of solitude that amplifies the river’s power.

The surface sparkles and crackles, moans and groans. For long spells, the water flows slowly and silently under its motionless shell and layers of snow. Openings in the ice remain at places along the banks where spring-fed creeks enter, emerging from the ground at 40-some degrees all year round. Water that will numb your feet in a few minutes in summer is liquid even as it touches air that is 60 degrees colder.

Time slows like the Earth’s metabolism, the sun recedes to an indifferent angle, and the St. Croix pushes on through winter the same way it refuses to stop for anything else.

January

February