Next Stop Traverse City and Visit to Sleeping Bear Dunes

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After Straits State Park, our next destination was Traverse City State Park. The GPS wanted us to head down I-75 and then come across to the park. But US-31 follows Lake Michigan and looked to be a much prettier route. The drive over the Mackinaw Bridge had a couple spots with construction bringing it down to a single lane, but the traffic was not very heavy so it was non-eventful. Other than some stretches where US-31 was in terrible shape and we were certain there would be some broken dishes or glasses, it was a beautiful drive.

This park is unusual in that it is in a very urban setting with horrendous traffic on the road leading past the park. But the sites are fairly spacious and setup reasonably well. The park's beach area is on the other side of the busy street but they have a pedestrian bridge to safely get across. Being Labor Day weekend, the place was fully occupied and many sites seemed to have several vehicles and multiple tents. Surprisingly though, it wasn't as rowdy at night as I was expecting. Our first day there was quite windy so the trip to the beach had big waves.

Very Windy and Big Waves

Chris Playing on Serpent

One of the main reasons for stopping in this area was to make it over to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. We heard many good things about this place and as we would find out, it did not disappoint. This isn't necessarily our first National Park to be visiting but we decided to pick up a National Park Passport so that we can stamp it as we continue traveling the country and see how many of these parks we can get to now that we are full timers. We also decided it was wise to just get the annual pass for admission to all the national parks.

At the visitor's center in Empire Michigan, we spoke with a nice volunteer who gave us suggestions as to which hikes we might like. The first place we headed to was the Empire Bluff Trail. Obviously we weren't the only ones wanting to do this as the parking lot was full. A hike through the woods gets you to the dunes overlooking Lake Michigan. A boardwalk with railing leads along the dune for maybe two tenths of a mile. Most people will head out to the viewing platform at the end of the boardwalk, enjoy the views and head back. But beyond the platform is a path that continues along the side of the dune. We followed it for a bit and it was nice to get to a place without so many people. A picture looking down the trail on the dune does a good job of showing just how steep the dune is. Eventually hunger won out and we headed back to the car.

Overlooking Dunes on Lake Michigan and South Bar Lake

A Very Calm Lake Michigan

Trail Along Side of Steep Dune

More Trails Ahead

Dunes Framed by Dead Tree

Our lunch stop was Empire Village Park. A very nice park with a sandy beach. Lots of people were spending time here as well. The parking is metered and two guys with bright safety vests are there to help use the parking ticket machine but more importantly to check for expired tickets. It wasn't perfectly clear what the penalty was but we payed the buck to park an hour. We did a geocache there and then enjoyed our lunch with a great view.

View From Lunch Stop

The next stop wasn't so much a single stop but the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. This is a 7.4 mile loop that goes through woods and past dunes. It also has 12 marked stops along the way at scenic points. Some of the stops were rather underwhelming but the ones that were at any point with views of the dunes and Lake Michigan were very nice.

View at Stop Along Scenic Loop

Another Nice View

At one stop, we went for the 1.5 mile hike on the dunes on the Cottonwood Trail. This trail happens to go past the top of one of the dune climbs, so we got to watch a handful of people make their way up. But probably the most impressive stop was at #9. There is a 450 drop down a dune to the shore of Lake Michigan. Dozens of people were in various stages of either bounding down the dune to the water's edge or slowly climbing (crawling) back up. I couldn't talk Chris into making the climb so we only watched.

Along the Cottonwood Trail

A Freighter in the Distance

One of the Small Inland Lakes

People on the Steep Dune

More People on the Dunes with Observation Platform in Distance

Resorting to Climbing on Hands and Knees

View from Platform

Overlooking Lake Michigan

After finishing the scenic drive, we headed north to Pyramid Point Trail. Is was late afternoon but there were quite a few people still parked at the trailhead. The hike up to the top was not all that bad. At the top we were greeted by yet another dune several hundred feet above the water. It looked like people climb this stretch of dune but surprisingly there was nobody doing the climb.

Papa Barn and Two Baby Barns on Way to Pyramid Point

Pyramid Point Dune

Nobody Climbing the Dune

Overlooking Lake Michigan

While heading back to the campgrounds, we spotted a farm store to pick up some veggies. Turns out Gallagher Farm Store was not your typical farm stand. They had a really nice bakery, a selection of Michigan wines, jams, jellies, honey, ice cream and yes fruits and vegetables. If you every happened to be on Route 72 between Traverse City and Empire, it's worth the stop. The cinnamon nut bread we got was excellent.