Skiing By Candlelight

Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park held their annual Candlelight Ski/Snowshoe/Walk over the weekend. We enjoy this event. This year all conditions were just right for cross-country skiing…the trail was well-groomed, the temperatures were above average, and there was no wind. 

The beautiful twilight when we started skiing.

It was a delight to be out there in the woods, lit by luminaries. It was calm and peaceful which made for an enchanting evening.

On of the larger luminaries, made of ice. A lot of the lights on the trails were white plastic buckets illuminated with candles, interspersed with balloon ice luminaries and big bucket luminaries. This event requires a lot of volunteers. I’m grateful for the people who set this up for others to enjoy.

There were a lot of visitors to the park…walking, snowshoeing and skiing. Thankfully out on the ski trail it was not crowded.

As it grew darker, sometimes it was hard to see the track in front of us between luminaries, which made it dicey at times. We chose to not use headlamps. The moon was shining through the trees, casting shadows.

Keeping skis in the track. My flash went off when I took this photo.

This was our second time out skiing that day…we skied at Riverbend Nature Center in the morning and that, too, was beautiful. It also gave us reason to believe skiing conditions would be favorable to venture out again in the evening for the much anticipated Candlelight Ski.

Skiing along the Straight River at Riverbend Nature Center.

4 thoughts on “Skiing By Candlelight”

    1. It is a great event. It’s difficult to get photos but I got a few to kind of show what it’s like.

Comments are closed.