<p>(Photo: Lake Vermilion1 / Flickr)For most folks in the northern half of the United States, Ol' Man Winter has way overstayed his welcome. Even people who love cold weather are ready for Mother Earth to put her Polar Vortex back where it's supposed to be. Matthew Walberg, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, writes that he, alone, has shoveled 25 tons of snow this season.</p><p>There were positive notes, however. One was the best season for visiting Lake Superior's ice caves on Wisconsin's Apostle Islands. Between Jan. 15 and March 12, over 125,000 people hiked more than a mile across the frozen lake to see winter's palace, 10 times the previous record and just short of the total for the entire park in all of 2013. (Warmer weather required park officials to close the attraction for the season.)</p><p>Photograph by Lake Vermilion 1.</p><p>Do you have your own compelling travel photos to share? Join the Yahoo! Travel Flickr group, or look us up on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Pinterest and Tumblr.</p><p><a href="http://travel.yahoo.com/blogs/compass/winter-s-palace--flickr-photo-of-the-day-203414851.html">Keep reading...</a></p>