Bear Lake Ice Breakup

Bear Lake doesn’t freeze every year, but when it does there are sometimes good photo opportunities when the ice breaks up.

 On this February day, a snowstorm was blowing in, and the gray clouds were a strong contrast to the blue and white piles of ice at Rainbow Cove on the Utah end of the lake.

Most of the ice blows ashore at just a few places.  Here at Cisco Beach huge piles of ice stack up, and as they scrape across the rocks, boulders are sometimes lifted several feet off the ground.  Strong blue colors show up in ice protected from snow and frost.

Sometimes vertical slabs of ice melt into fantastic delicate patterns.  Maybe their angle to the sun helps them melt faster than horizontal slabs.  The ice at Rainbow Cove had several of these wonderful delicate shapes.

The lake was covered by a fog bank in the distance, behind another delicate ice formation at Rainbow Cove.

Every time I explore Bear Lake I find something new.  The lake seems to have different moods every season, and I never get tired of the beauty of places like Rainbow Cove.  The fog and ice on this day was really special.

My photos are copyrighted, so please do not use them without permission.

Cisco Fishing at Bear Lake

Bonneville Cisco are a small fish found only in Bear Lake, and fishing for them with dip nets is done nowhere else in the world.  I left home in the dark this morning for the 45 minute drive to Cisco Beach in Utah.  It was snowing lightly, so the light was not very good for photography.

There were quite a few people there when we
arrived.  Cisco can only be caught for a couple of weeks around January when they gather around the shoreline rocks to spawn.

The lake is frozen this year so we needed to chop holes with an ax.  Years when the lake doesn't freeze, people wear boots or waders and stand in the lake with their dip nets.

In this photo, my friend Bill watches his son, Ben, catch some fish.  In back, my neighbor, Dan, brings more fish onto the ice.  The ice was thin where we cut our holes because it had shifted around, opening cracks which then refroze.  The lake ice was still roaring and cracking as it continued to move with the wind and currents..

We all caught our limits of 30 fish.  I cleaned half of them to eat, and the other half will be used for bait to catch lake trout.  Cisco don't taste as good as trout to me, but aren't bad battered and fried.

I was glad to have the chance to participate in this unique activity.

Cisco Beach Wave Ice

Bear Lake went through huge changes over the past year when the water level rose at a record pace and reached capacity for the first time in many years.  Trees and other plants that had been growing on the dry lake bed for years started to die off as they became submerged.

Many of these trees were just off-shore at Cisco Beach on the east side of the lake in Utah.  Waves that often keep the lake from freezing splashed against the dying trees and formed unique ice shapes.

Sometimes the splashing water ran down the trees and formed bell-shaped ice formations.



Photography was a challenge here.  Strong wind, freezing temperatures, and icy uneven footing made it an interesting day.  I plan to go back again soon!


Bear Lake is located half in Idaho and half in Utah.  Our home is 20 miles north of the lake in Montpelier, Idaho



Millions of shoreline bullrushes also died when the water rose.  These reeds washed ashore and were hit by the freezing waves.



Encased in ice.  Nature's beauty can even be found in dying plants in freezing weather.