Sleeping Bear Dunes

After settling in for a few days, Garon, Maddie and I took off for Sleeping Bear Dunes on the 4th of July. We knew it would be busy, but we also knew it would be worth it.

The day was a perfect sunny fourth. The first sight of Lake Michigan was exciting and surprising. I, for one, had no idea the water was so brilliantly blue! Shortly after the water sighting, we reached the small town of Empire where we stopped for some sandwiches to enjoy on a picnic once we arrive the park. We ended up eating before we saw anything, because the sandwiches were just too good looking.

Our first sighing of the dunes was pretty spectacular, even at the distance they were. The wind at the viewpoint was spectacular, too, so we hopped back in the car for the next viewpoint. And, holy moly, we were not expecting it.

We parked along a wooded path with every other person in the park and headed up the steep path where everyone else was going. Soon, the path turned into sand and we removed our shoes. Garon beat me up the hill, naturally. He stopped and looked back at me with this super goofy grin before proceeding onward. As soon as I reached the top I understood his grin.

Some facts: Sleeping Bear Dunes is 7 miles of largely complex shifting sand dunes. The highest point is 460 feet. There are two types of dunes created from the wind off Lake Michigan; perched dunes, formed on high plateaus and made of glacial sands, and beach dunes, formed along the shore and made of beach sands. Yes, I copied that from the Britannica.

Point is, we were floored. Absolutely amazed at the incredible size and view before us. Garon walked down a little bit first while I watched. When he came back up, I went down, but I couldn't go as far as he did. It was so scary, and I was sincerely concerned I might fall forward. He came down to meet me after taking some photos of me. We walked down a bit further, not without his encouragement. It really was an unforgettable place.

We plan on going back and hiking some of the trails there one day soon. If we had known how much we would have loved it, we would have stuck around a little longer that day, but we had hotel reservations in Traverse City. More on that next.

This is one of my first videos with footage from my camera. Since moving here, I've been working on creating films since video footage is so much more expressive than photos when telling stories.

Any-who, enjoy!