This past Saturday we held the January 2023 Night Sky Photography Workshop. Despite cloud cover impeding the starry night sky and the below freezing January temperatures, Nate Bett led an informative lecture to four very enthusiastic Keweenaw Mountain Lodge guests.

The four attendees arrived for a night snowshoe rental and stayed to learn about the phenomenon of the Auroras, a result of plasma expelled from the sun which follows the magnetic field lines of the earth and are visible to the human eye as brilliant ribbons of colored light or haze.

During the talk, Nate also discussed the correlation between ISO, shutter speed, and aperture settings, and talked about long exposure shots, light painting, ideal equipment for different weather and light conditions, and the most useful apps for planning great night sky photo opportunities.

On clear nights, Nate steps out with guests into the Dark Sky Park at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge and teaches hands on nighttime photography techniques. “The Dark Sky Park at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge is one of very few places left where humans can view the stars and the wonders of the night sky almost the same way our ancestors did,” explained Amy Bory, coordinator of Events and Education at the lodge.

In promoting the preservation of the night skies through education centered around the damage caused by light pollution, the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge hosts Night Sky and Aurora Photo Workshops every month of the year. Workshops are led by professional photographers and educators and draw passionate, purpose driven individuals of all skill levels.

Visit the KML calendar for the 2023 Photo Workshop dates.

As we embark on 2023, we would like to share with our guests two important things in regards to our dining services at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge.

• Continuing to focus on private dinners in the dining room
• Providing winter take out meal for lodging guests

Private Dinners in the Dining Room

Starting June 2022, and going strong into 2023, the Lodge initiated a unique dinner experience and switched completely to only “Private Dinners at a Prix Fixe” in the dining room. This is a European-style private dining experience offered exclusively in the historic dining room of the Lodge. The June decision had us operate the dining room fully as a private dinner location. This decision has been a wonderful decision.

For this unique private dining experience, the entire lodge building closes at 6pm, and transforms into a private enclave for the private diners. This provides a quiet atmosphere on the resort property (learn more about our quiet park initiative), where a maximum of 12 people per night can have dinner can experience the limited menu and slow food concepts. No where else can you have an entire WPA-era Lodge to yourself.

For those who experienced this dining style at the Lodge, they have understood the concept of the change and have embraced the experience it brought them. They have come as guests, and left as friends. This is due to the food being genuine and authentic cuisines from different cultures — rustic worldly food. As well, having a maximum of 12 people per evening in the dining room, the chef having a keen interest and attention to every guest, and the chef being creative and passionate about food (she creates a new menu each week, providing uniqueness and quality) has led to positive experiences.

[ see more food photos ]

The staff has also been able to enjoy the operations much more, as we have customers that appreciate life, respect other — leading to a fun.joyous.adventuresome experience for both the guests and the KML team.

Winter Take-out Meals

Starting December 15th, 2022, we saw the need to offer cabin guests with hot dinners considering limited dining options during the winter time at the top of the Keweenaw. We launched our complimentary take-out dinners for our cabin guests with the goal to provide a nice, rotating hot dinner that will be enjoyed in the cabins by a warm fireplace, creating memories and sharing stories, while also simply breathing in all that nature has to offer. The take-out dinners are being provided by the Little Cabin Cafe.

Learn more about the winter take-out meals that we are offering during the 2022-2023 winter season.

The Little Cabin Cafe continues to be open every day of the week to the general public from 8am to 5pm, offering breakfast burritos in the morning, and one food lunch item based upon what the chef has created that day. In addition, the cafe continues to offer specialty coffee, snacks, and beverages — juices, sodas, craft beer, and wine.

After being the interim general manager at the Lodge since January 2019, John Mueller has now decided to focus full time on the Lodge. He has resigned from his professorship position at St. Edward’s University (in Austin, Texas) to be able to devote his full attention on the Lodge. As a result the “interim” tag is removed.

Below are John’s words about the decision to focus full-time on the Lodge at this time:

I want to wish everyone a happy new year, and may 2023 be a prosperous year for all.

2022 was a good year for us at the Lodge, as we continued to build upon what we have done the previous couple of years to be a four-season (year-round) resort at the top of the Keweenaw focused on outdoor activities, rustic worldly food, and education. In 2022, we continued to be tight on staff. However, we adjusted our services accordingly to make sure that we are all still enjoying and appreciating life (which is one of our secondary values), while still offering quality services and products based upon our brand/image.

As we continued this past year to adjust our services based upon the ideal level of team members, my role in the organization has evolved to fill multiple gaps. We had several untimely departures of staff during 2022, with most of them going onto opportunities that offered growth in their career — which is wonderful to see. We had several members join the team in 2022 that provide a joyous attitude, and contribute greatly to the roles and responsibilities at the Lodge. And the core team at the Lodge continues to be a stable ground for the Lodge operation, and provide leadership and results.

Even with the core team at the Lodge, we still have gaps to fill. As such, more and more of my time was being required at the Lodge. Thus, I made the decision to resign my faculty position at St. Edward’s University (Austin) and to focus full time on the Lodge operations in 2023. My last day at the university was yesterday, December 31st.

With me focusing full time on the Lodge operations, I will be working over the next several months with team members on some organizational structure changes. Thus, there will be some changes with operations in terms of roles and responsibilities as we look to how we are going to operate in 2023. For example, the first change is that the “interim” tag on my role has been removed….and now it is just “Chief Lead” [ that is, if we were using titles; however, we focus more on what our roles and responsibilities are as team members, not titles ].

Thank you all for the support this past year, and may 2023 be a fun, joyous, and adventuresome year. We know how to do that, so let’s continue to focus on our core values, our desired brand/image, and being sustainable financially. This will give us the best opportunity to be proud in what we do at the Lodge, and continue to do fun and exciting things at the resort. Being a member of the Lodge team is special and none of us take that for granted. Go Team KML!!!

About the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge: The Lodge is a four-season historic resort at the top of the Keweenaw, focused on outdoor activities, rustic worldly food, and education. The year-round resort consists of log cabins, a lodge, dining services, access to mountain biking, running, and hiking trails, and a 9-hole golf course. The resort has been a fixture in the Keweenaw since breaking ground on the project in 1934 as part of a WPA program, providing guests with the opportunity to enjoy a fun, joyous, and adventuresome experience among the pristine natural beauty of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula — with the Lodge being on the National Register of Historic Places. Guests can play a round of golf, ride the mountain biking trails, hike through the woods, and take a leisurely stroll to/from the cabins and the Lodge. At the end of the day, one can relax in the Lodge by enjoying quality food and drink.

The December 2022 photo workshop went off successfully with another great session led by professional photographer, Nate Bett. In attendance was a lodging guest who came to Copper Harbor specifically to attend the Photo Workshop. The single attendee got a one-on-one photography lesson from Nate who also taught her how to use her camera and tripod and was able to recommend some lenses, apps, equipment, and some useful tips to enhance the quality of her photos. Due to falling snow and overcast conditions, the techniques were not able to be applied and practiced that evening. The workshop was also attended by several of the lodge staff.

Ready or not, here comes winter. The blowing and drifting snow created dangerous driving conditions resulting in the cancellation of this month’s Night Sky Photo Workshop.

We held a workshop on Thursday, November 3rd, 2022 that covered the dark sky park designation process and light management, which led to a discussion about what the Lodge is doing to foster dark-skies in the Keweenaw.

The Lodge has been working to reduce it’s light pollution on the dark sky for the past several years. KML’s John Mueller has been responsible for the international dark sky park designation, and working with team members on light management and inventorying the lighting at the Lodge. As part of that activity, he has been able to see where the Lodge has been able to achieve designation and continuing to improve both lighting and energy efficiency. This has helped move the Lodge forward with the International Dark Sky Park designation application that is currently being reviewed by the International Dark-Sky Association.

In this workshop, John went through the process of achieving the designation to give the attendees a perspective of where the Lodge has come from with the designation, as well was what makes the Keweenaw and the Lodge so special — including for stargazing. He went through the effects that artificial light has on one’s environment, and then what the Lodge team has been doing to decrease light trespassing and pollution in the park and at the top of the Keweenaw. 

Here is a bullet point of the topics covered:

• Brief Lodge/Keweenaw history and background
• International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) background info
• Process that the Lodge followed to achieve the international dark sky park designation
• Defined Light Pollution, its varieties (glare, cluster, light trespass, and skyglow), and explained the effects of light pollution on the environment (fireflies, sea turtles, birds and insects specifically), as well as the negative effects on humans.
• IDAs various requirements for outdoor lighting
• The Lodge’s strategy for choosing our dark sky lighting and our lighting management plan
• Q&A

The recording of the workshop can be viewed via the link below. 

The slide deck used during the workshop can be viewed by clicking on the image below.

[ Download the the slide deck ]

About the Instructor: John Mueller

John is the interim General Manager at the Lodge, and spearheaded the Lodge’s International Dark Sky Park application. He is intimately involved with implementing dark sky park initiatives at the Lodge, including the light management. 

At the Lodge, we are now transitioning to the 2022-2023 winter season. The leaves have all fallen from the trees (as we pick them up around the Lodge), the first snow has fallen (albeit, melted away), and the Outdoor Activities Center has transitioned to it’s winter location (in the Banquet room).

This means we are focusing on making sure the cross-country ski trails and snowshoe trails are cleaned up (doing some stump grinding and removing of downed limbs), the rental equipment is in good order (snowshoes and Alta Skis), and the crew rejuvenated after a strong summer/fall season. In addition, we are working on fixing and upgrading our grooming equipment (Gator groomer, Ginzu repairs). We are going to be ready for the winter season at the Lodge.

Here is a video produced by Visit Keweenaw by Aaron Peterson Studios to highlight the winter outdoor activities in the Keweenaw.

Adventure North!!

….and experience the snow activities: downhill skiing (at Mt. Bohemia and Mont Ripley), cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, snow biking, ice climbing, and snowmobiling at multiple areas around the Keweenaw.

In addition, there is stargazing — which happens year-round.

Tom Oliver, photographer and ecology expert, led an informative and captivating Night Sky Photo Workshop this month. The seven Keweenaw Mountain Lodge guests gained knowledge about the phenomenon of the Auroras, learned about the importance of positive light management during hours of darkness, and picked up tips on effectively capturing nighttime and low light photos. After the lecture, the group was able to practice the new techniques at Hunter’s Point Beach in Copper Harbor. The night couldn’t have been more perfect. The Milky Way was a prominent feature in the night sky, encapsulated by an electro-magnetic purple aurora haze along with countless constellations and planets. A real treat for night sky photographers.

This past spring we held the a 2022 Keweenaw Photo Contest, with the photos selected to be hung in the cabins, printed on wood from Unrefined Art in Niles, Michigan.

We listed the winners in an earlier post, but we did not show the photos. Here are the photos, and where we currently having the photos being printed and will hang them in the cabins once we receive them from Unrefined Art.

• Nathan Frazier: Quincy Dredge No. 2

• Nathan Frazier:  Rainbow Over Bare Bluff [ Cabin 10 ]

• Chris Guibert: Eagle River Falls [ Cabin 1 ]

• Chris Guibert: Lac La Belle [ Cabin 11 ]

• Joe Hall: Milky Way over Eagle Harbor Marina [ Cabin 12 ]

•  Joe Hall: Northern Lights seen from Brockway Mountain [ Cabin 7 & 17 ]

• Jim Hay: Eaglet at Gratiot Lake [ Cabin 3 ]

• Nicholas Jensen: Copper Harbor Lighthouse [ Cabin 17 & 22 ]

• Margret Keats: Ice Wave [ Cabin 24 & 25 ]

• Nathan Miller: Ice Walk at McClain State Park [ Cabin 4 ]

• Frank Mittelstadt: Boreal Owl at Mount Bohemia

• Rob Mohn: Fall Colors from the top of Brockway Mountain [ Cabin 5 & 14 ]

• Chelsea Murawski: US 41 in Mandan [ Cabin 9B & 16 ]

• Bill Parthun: Horseshoe Bay Waves [ Cabin 2 & 19 ]

• Jeremey Rodriguez: Hunter’s Point [ Cabin 15 & 20 ]

• Jeremey Rodriguez: Swedetown [ Cabin 4 & 23 ]

• Jeremy Rowe: Northern Lights at Agate Harbor [ Cabin 6A ]

• Christopher Schmidt: Lightning Storm over Lake Superior [ Cabin 9A ]

• Mark Upton: Pancake Ice at 5 Mile Point [ Cabin 8B & 18 ]

• Cassandra Wagner: Fall at the top of Mount Ripley [ Cabin 6B & 18 ]

Thank you to all the photographers that submitted their photos in the 2022 Keweenaw Photo Contest. It was wonderful reviewing them, and being able to have quality photos from so many. We look forward to hanging this year’s woodprints in the cabins before the end of the year.

We also had a Keweenaw Photo Contest in 2019. You can view those woodprints here.

Woodprints by Unrefined Art

The Lodge Life Shop Spotlight is a series that highlights the skills and creativity of Lodge team members. This month we are highlighting Chris Guibert, who leads the Outdoor Activities at the Lodge. Below are his words about himself.

Spotlight: Chris Guibert

Art has always been part of my life. I enjoy working through the creative process of just about anything. I drew for fun as a kid and took art classes and mechanical drawing throughout high school. At age 30, after a career in the mountain bike industry, I went back to school and earned a degree in Professional Photography (AAS) from Colorado Mountain College. After graduation I worked as the production manager at a digital art lab in Aspen Colorado.

At DAA (Digital Arts Aspen) I worked on digital art reproductions, assisted other photographers in the studio and helped with Photoshop workshops. Since 2004 I have worked as a freelance photographer focusing on commercial work and editorial assignments in the adventure travel industry. I have created feature stories for publications such as Bike, Powder, Freehub, Mountain Flyer and others. I hope to invoke the spirit of adventure in my images, I want the viewer to be thrilled, stimulated and inspired. I look for subjects that open metaphorical doors and showcase the beauty of this world and beyond.

Currently I am the Outdoor Activities Lead at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge. While working with the KML team on the IDA (International Dark Sky Association) application I became fascinated with night sky imagery. I started paying more attention to celestial events and found myself waking up all times of night to capture the cosmos.

I used a Canon 5D Mark IV and their series of “L” lenses on a tripod to capture these images. My workflow consists of processing the raw files in the Adobe raw converter and then bringing them into Photoshop for some contrast adjustments and lens corrections. My prints are the final step of my process. This series of images are printed with pigmented inks from an Epson SureColor P800 printer on Epson Hot Press Bright Fine Art Paper.

If you have any questions about my imagery or work flow please come see me at the OAC (Outdoor Activity Center). 

Below are pieces that can be viewed and purchased in the Lodge Life Shop. 

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You can view more of Chris’ work at his website: chrisguibert.com.

And follow him on Instagram: @chrisguibert_photography.