Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Glen Arbor, MI: The Dune Climb

One of the places I knew we had to see on our Michigan trip was Sleeping Bear Dunes. Climbing the dunes was highly recommended by several of my friends and I couldn't wait to get up there.


Well...the recounts of their adventures made it sound easier to find the dunes than it actually was - at least for us. I forgot to mention that although we had a smartphone with us, it runs on T-Mobile ($30/mo unlimited data!) which, while awesome for the price and the general coverage we normally have, does not cover anything in western Michigan north of Grand Rapids. And we didn't know that until we were in Michigan without Internet access. So we had our old-school GPS but had no Internet after we went through Holland.


So we drove around a lot. We took S. Dune Highway to Sleeping Bears Dunes Road, which with names like those made us think we were on the right track. Unfortunately we were there too late in the evening (this was around 7pm) for the visitors center to be open or for anyone to be around to ask where to go. Eventually we turned around and found something called "The Dune Climb". Might as well do this!


While this isn't the thing that all my friends were talking about (turns out we were supposed to take the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive and take the climb there, and the fact that there's a climb here is not marked on the sign on Dune Highway), it was pretty awesome! The views of Glen Lake above was really pretty, and the climb itself was a good workout. It was really windy and we were glad for our sunglasses to block some of the sand.


What we didn't know was that there is actually a trail through these dunes that leads you to Lake Michigan. The trail can take 3-4 hours so I guess it's good we didn't know about it :)




We were the only people on this side of the dunes for most of our time here. This photo is supposed to show you just how high up we were!







Have you ever been to Sleeping Bear Dunes? Did you do the correct side of the dunes where you can see Lake Michigan? I definitely want to go back here and do the scenic drive and that dune climb. It was so beautiful! We were lucky that we did this in the later evening because I guess the sand gets really hot. It was just perfect for us though.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Glen Arbor, MI: The Dune Climb Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Glen Arbor, MI: The Dune Climb Reviewed by Maria on 3:00:00 PM Rating: 5

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