Great Spirit Bluff Cliff View, La Crescent Live Cam

A sheer rock bluff above the Mississippi River near La Crescent, Minnesota, filmed from the cliff face itself. A small wooden box is mounted on the rock at the left, and the highway and the wide river fill the rest of the frame.

Great Spirit Bluff rises on the Minnesota bank of the Upper Mississippi, just over a kilometre from Lock and Dam 7 at Dresbach. Below it a highway follows the foot of the slope, and beyond it the river splits into channels, marshy backwaters and wooded islands. Peregrine falcons lay their eggs in shallow scrapes on cliff ledges rather than in stick nests.

The camera is fixed and looks along the rock wall from a bird's-eye angle, close to the falcons' nest site. Through the day the framing stays the same, while the light, the traffic on the highway, passing boats and the colour of the trees change.