Sleeping Bear Dunes:

Two years ago for Labor Day Weekend, Nisheet and I did a very quick version of the Lake Michigan Circle Tour (only 4 days), and our very favorite place on that trip was Sleeping Bear Dunes. So, this year we decided to go back and spend the entire weekend camping and exploring the area.

When we set up our tent the first night, the weather was great, but we woke up to a very wet and rainy day. So, we decided to spend the day driving to a bunch of the little towns along lake near Sleeping Bear Dunes. It turned out to be a beautiful day, but I’m still glad we spent the day just exploring. Michigan is known for it’s cherries, and we sure did get our fill of cherries that day. The ultimate cherry store is Cherry Republic where you can find cherry wine, cherry peanut butter, cherry pie, cherries in water, cherry coffee, cherry spitting pits, cherry salsa… you get the idea. The little towns were so cute (though quite tourist), and there were tons of little unique stores and restaurants. We also saw many picture perfect spots, and bridal parties definitely agreed with us. Finally, we ended the day at a cute little pizza place at a vineyard. I didn’t actually drink any wine there, but their hard apple cider was excellent.

We spent the next day and a half hiking and driving through Sleeping Bear Dunes (the real reason we came here). The views of Lake Michigan are just amazing. The water is so clear and blue that it is hard to believe that it is the same lake that Chicago is on. And, the dunes are enormous. The pictures do NOT do it justice at all. The main hike we did was called “The Dune Trail” and we were warned that it was a difficult hike, but neither of us were prepared for it. It was like hiking straight up and down mountains for miles but more difficult because it was sand. It was pretty cool though because I’d never gone hiking barefoot before! Anyways, the start of the trail had a ton of people on it, but once we finally made it over to the lake, it was so peaceful with hardly anyone else around. Nisheet went swimming but it was way too cold for me, so I only waded in the water. We went to the main, huge dune later in the day, but it was rainy and super windy and cold, so we mostly just drove around.

The next morning we needed to start driving back towards Chicago, but we decided to give the monster dune one more try even though it was still pretty chilly and windy (at least the rain was past though.) We were the ONLY people there when we got there which made it even more beautiful and amazing. Nisheet made it all the way down the dune, but I only got around 2/3 of the way down because I was really afraid I’d need the entire day to make it back up the dune. It is so steep that you basically are crawling on all fours.