Mississippi River, Green Island Preserve. Eastern Iowa
February sun with already long shadows from the trees at mid afternoon, over a well known and still iced over part of the Green Island Wetlands. The photo was taken from a small boat ramp we have used many times before to launch our kayaks. This is about forty miles south from our home and that short of a distance can make quite a difference how the weather impacts the landscape. Here they didn’t get by far as much snow as we did this week and a couple degrees difference in temperature can make the snow disappear much faster.
Before the Green Island preserve was separated from the Mississippi River by dikes, this was obviously all backwaters of the big river. I have photographed from this spot before and it is one of my favorite locations in the wetlands. Always liked how the lines of this channel move the eye to the horizon and how the trees follow this line.
While approaching the place I saw the cloud in the background moving fast towards the east. I was hoping it would have been a little more to the left, in the gap between the trees, but unfortunately I was too late. I’m still happy with the photo, telling the story about gorgeous winter days here in the Driftless Region of the Upper Mississippi Valley.