Sleeping Bear Dunes

Saturday, we headed north into Michigan.  We drove towards Holland and took the scenic route north along the Lake Michigan shoreline.  Along the way, we stopped at Ottawa Sands County Park to break up the drive and take Alex for a hike.  We took the trail from the parking down towards the lake and went right to hike around the lake.

American beachgrass circled the small lake.

I also spotted some invasive knapweed flowering.

The lake and sandy trail were very scenic but it was quite hot out.  We found a shady spot and stopped so Alex could take a rest and have a drink.

Continuing around the lake, there were several more scenic views.

Surrounding the lake were beautiful forested dunes.

As we were finishing our hike, there was a lot of spotted beebalm along the trail.

I spotted a beautiful monarch butterfly necataring on the flowers.

Finishing up the loop, it was quite nice to get back to the air conditioning.

From here, we continued north and stopped at Lakeside Wiener Wagaon for hot dogs for lunch.  Alex got his own hot dog too!

Then we made the rest of the drive up to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  We checked in at Platte River and set up our tent in loop 1.  A black squirrel was scurrying about our site.

Chris and Mel were still a ways behind us so I went for a short hike.  The trailhead was right near our campsite and led out towards the lake.

There were a couple small ponds right along the trail.

As I got close to Lake Michigan, the forest opened up and gave way to the dunes.

The lake was really scenic and I could see the big dunes to the north.

A few people were swimming but I just got my feet wet.  Then I started making my way back.

By the time I got back, Chris and Mel had arrived and set up and so we were ready to go.  First, we drove out to the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive.  The ranger at check-in suggested we do this drive as it would be closing on Tuesday.  The first stop was an overlook of Glen Lake.

Our next stop was the Dune Overlook with a great view of Sleeping Bear Dunes.

It didn't really look like a bear from this angle; I think you have to be out on the lake to see the bear.

From here, we made one more stop at the Lake Michigan Overlook.  A sandy climb up led to the overlook.

From the overlook, the view of Lake Michigan and the dunes to the north were just fantastic.

A few people had climbed down and it looked like they were struggling to get back up the steep sandy slope.

After some shots, I hiked around the sandy bluff up here and spotted some soapwort flowering.

There was a second overlook here as well to the north.

The sun was getting lower in the sky but this wasn't our sunset spot, not the least of which was due to the crowds.  We finished the scenic drive and continued to the trailhead for Empire Bluffs.  The trail led through the forest and in less than a mile, came out near the bluffs.

There was a boardwalk at the end of the trail with a great view above the lake.  And we had this one to ourselves.

It was a really beautiful sunset as a sliver of the moon was high in the sky.

Hiking back, we made it to the cars by darkness and then headed back to camp.

Sandy and I made a fire at our site before bed.