05/03/2026
Bloomin Cherry Blossoms 🌸 in La Crosse.
Just off the Mississippi River at Houska Park in La Crosse, spring doesn’t arrive loudly. It slips in quietly, carried on a few warm afternoons and the brief bloom of cherry blossoms that never seem to last as long as you hope.
I had come the evening before, trying to balance motion in the water with the movement in the trees, but the wind had other plans. When I got home and pulled the images up on my computer, it was obvious right away—the blossoms were a blur. Rookie mistake. I had been so focused on softening the water that I let the wind take the rest of the scene with it.
So I came back the next day, knowing the window might already be closing. In this part of Wisconsin, blooms like these don’t wait around.
The air had changed overnight. It was calmer, warmer, more forgiving. Across the river, the Cass Street Bridge stretched quietly into the evening, a familiar crossing that has connected both sides of the city for over a century.
As the sun dipped lower, the sky shifted into deep blues and soft purples, with light breaking through just enough to illuminate the blossoms during golden hour. The river settled, the branches steadied, and everything finally lined up.
And for a few minutes, the river, the blossoms, and the bridge all felt perfectly in step.
