.deep lake.

This weekend I explored a new lake in Grant County, Deep Lake. I first saw this long and isolated lake a few years ago on a hike and always wanted to come back because, without a boat or kayak, it's mostly inaccessible. Deep lake is located at the end of the road inside the Dry Fall State Park, so it's a super interesting geological area. 

The lake is mostly accessed for fishing, and as the official season doesn't start until the end of the month, I arrived at no one at the lake. It was amazingly quiet and calm. The lake is bordered to the left with gigantic towering basalt columns that look like sculptures in some places and almost as if they had a raku pottery finish in others, with their layers of colors white, cream, beige, and black. It was a magical place in the landscape, vastness, and isolation. I paddled the entire lake. With the curving perimeter, the lake slowly revealed itself as I went. At one point toward the top of the lake, I found an alcove/cave that offered such a beautiful reflection of the rippling water waves and light. 

The silence was immersive except for the birdsong of swallows, who make their home in the rock wall. As I paddled up the lake, hugging the lake's rock edge, the swallows would leave their homes, erupting in song and circling in a frenzy before flying off further or waiting for me to be far enough away to return home.