Summer Trip Part 2 - Lake Michigan/Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

The second half of our trip was traveling up to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Initially, I was imagining a couple days of laying on a beach, playfully splashing in clear blue Lake Michigan and maybe even doing a little tubing down the Platte River. However, about a week before the trip a thought popped into my mind - wait a minute, it's only in the high 70s here in Kansas and I would not want to be getting in any water down here and Michigan is way further north......Hmm......

Thank goodness for that realization because not only was it colder than in Kansas, it rained most of the time we were traveling up to and while we were in northern Michigan.

After fighting through Chicago traffic we made our first stop at Holland State Park. I love rain so I wasn't minding the weather nor the views it was giving.

We made an impromptu stop for the night in Traverse City, MI at a hotel with a beach view. There were cute families of ducks on the beach and the still morning produced some fantastic imagery

The next day we headed to Sleeping Bear Dunes Lakeshore. I was so pumped to do a dune climb (despite the warnings). We initially went to a location to start hiking called "Dune Climb" but after 3 summits of sand and Lake Michigan still far away (which we finally did see in the distance on the 3rd summit) we admitted defeat and turned around while we still had the energy to go back.

On our way back we also noticed the sign describing the hike we took as a "strenuous" 3.7 mile hike so, lesson learned, always read the signs first! Also, always trust your intuition because we would've never made it the full 3.7 miles.

So, we were a bit bummed but drove the Pierce Stocking Scenic Route in the park which provided the views we were looking for! Also, totally didn't do a dune climb like we had anticipated because the dune we were at was STEEP! I'm talking steep as in I don't know how anyone could've gotten back up, steep like the cliff was a concave piece of sand so much so you couldn't see the bottom, steep like if you went tumbling forward you would literally not be able to stop, steep like a sand avalanche could happen any second.

Driving away from the park provided some additional interesting views

All in all, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is an awesome national park and maybe next time we go to Michigan we will make sure it's in late summer!