Stunning Images From An Unrelenting Winter

CHICAGO (CBS) -- If you were to describe this winter in a single word, what would it be?

Brutal?

Miserable?

Unrelenting?

Frank Oliver is the photo editor for Indiana Department of Natural Resources' Outdoor Indiana magazine.

Though a camera lens, he sees the winter a bit differently.

Let's call it stunning.

Oliver is the kind of photographer who can turn the flat, boring parts of Indiana into masterpieces.

His photos, provided to CBS 2, captured the beauty of winter at one of the Chicago area's finest natural treasures--the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and Indiana Dunes State Park.

The photo above shows the beach and ice shelf at the Indiana Dunes State Park under a starry night last Wednesday. Click on the image below for a larger view.

(The state park lies right in the middle of the National Lakeshore. Visitors won't even know the difference.)

The photo below is of Anthony Turner, of Chesterton, and Lee Ann Crook embracing after taking photos of the sunset and ice shelf on Lake Michigan. Click on the image for a bigger view.

Crook just recently moved to the area from, Florida.

Shelf ice occurs when cold temperatures freeze small areas of an open lake, forming float ice.

This ice will build up over time and be pushed to shore by waves, eventually accumulating on top of the beach, forming shelf ice.

Visitors come every winter to view the formations.

The DNR and the National Park Service warn that it's OK to look but not touch.

Walking on shelf ice can be extremely dangerous because it is basically a collection of ice chunks and can be unstable.

You can check out more of Oliver's work on the Outdoor Indiana Facebook page.

--John Dodge, CBS Chicago