PORT CLINTON, OH (WTOL) - People are flocking to West Lakeshore Drive in Port Clinton to see a huge ice build up called an ice floe that came ashore Friday.
Usually an iced over Lake Erie looks flat and lifeless. But this week, a pop-up mini mountain range of ice has grown west of Port Clinton.
Some of the crystal blue peaks are over 25 feet tall. It is a sight rarely seen on the stretch of the Lake Erie shore.
"Well, it does not happen very often," Kim Bender said. "It is a very rare occurrence, sometimes decades will go by before you see something like this. And it is also so close to shore it makes it very accessible to people."
"Yes, out at the Marblehead lighthouse it was like this a couple years ago," Nancy Calvert confirmed.
Since the ice floe has appeared, people have continuously been coming out to observe and take pictures of the icy beauty.
Some people even took the opportunity for a fancy photo shoot and some mentioned that the turquoise of the ice reminds them of glaciers in the arctic.
"The beauty of the colors of the lake and the clarity I think," Amy Below described. "The blue ice. I have been up to Alaska and seen some of the glaciers and floes like this, and it is just gorgeous."
Local officials have asked people to not go too far out onto the ice, as it could be unstable, but many are still taking the time to explore this temporary winter wonderland.
"Because I know it is going to go away this weekend, and we won't see it again for a couple years," Chelsea Calvert explained.
Almost everyone visiting the ice Tuesday expects this ice buildup to go away by this weekend with warmer weather and rainfall approaching.
