The beach in winter
In summer, the little towns of Door County, Wisconsin, seem to run into each other, connected by endless streams of visitors. But winter gives them back their individual personalities. Snow is welcome on this 75-mile-long finger of land crooked between Green Bay and Lake Michigan.
Walking the beach at Whitefish Dunes State Park is a winter pilgrimage for Door Countians. Ice stacks into glittering piles along the water's edge, and the dunes slowly shift in winter winds. Inland, "we see all the hidden things, things we just see hints of in the summer," says park staffer Carolyn Rock. Trails through bare woods reveal hawks' and owls' nests, a half-dozen kind of woodpeckers at work and flocks of turkeys.