Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

We just got back from a 3 night camping trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan and it was wonderful. 80 degrees and sunny, clean beaches, cool hikes, museums and no mosquitoes.

When we got there the campground was full so we stayed out near the Empire, MI airport (a big grassy field) and slept under the stars which was a first for the kids. So proud. The picture above is them helping Scott to pack up camp. Scott by the way got up at 5:00 the next morning to go wait in line to get a campsite at the official National Park campground. Bless him.

Chilly but crystal clear Lake Michigan. Back before global warming they say it would freeze all the way out to the islands (12 miles). The water still freezes a long way out creating cool ice caves. Too creepy for me though.

Baby sea turtles crawling to the water.

The stretch of water between the main land and the two Manitou islands is called the Manitou passage and is a shortcut for shipping in the Great Lakes. However it is full of sand bars and shoals so it is home to something like 60 old shipwrecks some of which are quite recent. Back in the 19th century they set up a series of Life Saving Service stations along the beaches in order to operate rescue missions. Basically they would fire a rope over the stranded boat and set up a pulley system with a buoy with shorts in it (a Breaches Buoy). They would do a practice run every Monday and Thursday. The Life Saving Service station at Sleeping Bear Dunes is now a museum but they do a reenactment everyday where they save Raggedy Anne and Raggedy Andy then they also do a firing of the real Lyle Gun every Monday and Thursday which we were able to see.

The start of our 3.5 mile evening Dune Climb. That's right, a mountain of sand.

Eve being a Dune Bear. That's Glen Lake behind us. The legend of Sleeping Bear Dunes is kind of cool. It comes from the Native Americans tells of a mother bear and her two cubs caught on the shores of lake Michigan on the Wisconsin side by a forest fire. In order to escape they swam out into the lake headed east. 12 miles from shore her two cubs drowned from exhaustion becoming the two Manitou Islands. The mother bear reached shore and lay down facing her cubs. She became Sleeping Bear Dune.

Poor stranded children.

View of an old farm from the Dune.

Finally made it to the top of Sleeping Bear Dune. We didn't have enough daylight to hike down to the lake not to mention the strength to climb back up.

Watching the sunset over Lake Michigan.

Oak couldn't wrap his mind around the sun sinking into the water. In fact he is still talking about the "Sun in water."

By the end Eve made a deal with me. If I carried her on the uphills she would run the downhills.

Running down the 130-foot Dune at full speed. So awesome.

Eve receiving her Junior Ranger badge from Ranger Sarah. For the remainder of our trip she kept quizzing us on what Junior Rangers would do. For example: "Would a Junior Ranger put trash in the fire, yes or no?"

Canoeing down the Platte River all the way to the beach.