Sleeping Bear Point Trail
Sleeping Bear Point is at the northern end of the National Lakeshore. It is just west of Glen Arbor. There is a nice parking lot trailhead at the end of a dirt road. I did this loop trail counterclockwise. In this direction it begins on pure sand and very quickly comes to a junction where you can turn right and go about 2/10 of a mile down to the Lake Michigan beach. Definitely worth it especially if you have kids to go and explore and enjoy the sand and the beach. Once back to the loop it's meanders on the dunes and you follow blue posts to stay on route. For the most part it's fairly easy to keep on the route. You spend a lot of time on the sand with plenty of up hills and subsequent downs. The last 0.75 takes you into the woods on a beautiful single track with plenty of fall colors. I was engaged the whole loop hiking on my own and didn't for a second think of putting in my earbuds to pass the time. Definitely a winner of a trail and hike while visiting Sleeping Bear Dunes.
Sleeping Bear Point is at the northern end of the National Lakeshore. It is just west of Glen Arbor. There is a nice parking lot trailhead at the end of a dirt road. I did this loop trail counterclockwise. In this direction it begins on pure sand and very quickly comes to a junction where you can turn right and go about 2/10 of a mile down to the Lake Michigan beach. Definitely worth it especially if you have kids to go and explore and enjoy the sand and the beach. Once back to the loop it's meanders on the dunes and you follow blue posts to stay on route. For the most part it's fairly easy to keep on the route. You spend a lot of time on the sand with plenty of up hills and subsequent downs. The last 0.75 takes you into the woods on a beautiful single track with plenty of fall colors. I was engaged the whole loop hiking on my own and didn't for a second think of putting in my earbuds to pass the time. Definitely a winner of a trail and hike while visiting Sleeping Bear Dunes.
Trip Info:
Sleeping Bear Point Trail
Trailhead Elevation: 588 ft.
Distance: 2.53 mi.
Elevation Gain: 465 ft.
Start Time: 10:59am
End Time: 11:51am
Track:
I have a track and waypoints from the activity all contained in the embedded Google Map. Check it out and use at your own risk.
Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive
Though not a hike, I wanted to include a few transition shots I took on the drive from Sleeping Bear Point onto the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive and all its amazing colors. I did have to pay the $25 park entrance fee to enter the drive. The Lake Michigan Overlook is one of the latter stops along the scenic drive.
Though not a hike, I wanted to include a few transition shots I took on the drive from Sleeping Bear Point onto the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive and all its amazing colors. I did have to pay the $25 park entrance fee to enter the drive. The Lake Michigan Overlook is one of the latter stops along the scenic drive.
Lake Michigan Overlook Climb
The Lake Michigan Overlook is one of the last stops on the Scenic Drive. Its a fairly big trailhead and it's a major tourist stop with some very easy flat walking around on the dunes to get pictures of the lake and the bluff. And there's the sign that says beware of going down to the lake, rescues cost $3,000. One would figure this sign is here because many people underestimate just how difficult it is to make the climb back up and the beach area is not accessible by any ease.
The Lake Michigan Overlook is one of the last stops on the Scenic Drive. Its a fairly big trailhead and it's a major tourist stop with some very easy flat walking around on the dunes to get pictures of the lake and the bluff. And there's the sign that says beware of going down to the lake, rescues cost $3,000. One would figure this sign is here because many people underestimate just how difficult it is to make the climb back up and the beach area is not accessible by any ease.
In the upper 100 ft of the slope below the sign there's tons of footprints making one think that a lot of people go down there. But those footprints are mostly people checking out the top half and as you see how crazy steep the whole slope is, most people rightly bail out. I did hike it to the bottom. The going down was very steep but relatively easy. It was like descending scree out in the Rockies. The lower half of the slope had no fresh footprints, just old wind blown footprints. I would guess that no one had been down there today or for a couple days. It was consistently steep all the way to the bottom.
As you go down you keep thinking it must cliff out at some point but the slope is so perfectly even it keeps the bottom always just out of view. At the bottom the beach was fairly narrow with only a small amount of space between the slope and the water. I spent just a minute or two down there taking it in and getting some pictures. The climb up was very daunting if you looked at it and so one trick is to not look at all of it. I took the first few steps in some of the more unbroken sand and it would slip me back almost to where I started. I thought that making my own switchbacks on the way up would help, but the way those fresh steps would slip that did not seem to be the answer. That made it evident this could be big trouble to get all the way up. Then I saw my footsteps from the descent and I started climbing in them and it provided a more stable footbed. That became the major trick on the ascent to use the previous footprints in the sand.
I'm fairly convinced this direct approach on the ascent, because of the sand, was better than trying to switchback. On the ascent I would make it about 10 or 20 large climbing steps and then stop to catch my breath. My legs still felt pretty good from summer training. I could feel my calves burning some by the top. It was definitely the cardio from not running the last 3 months that made it the most challenging. My heart was racing and the stops were needed to quick recover. About halfway up I could hear what sounded like people cheering from the Overlook and it appeared a number of people were watching me on the ascent. When I made it to the top a few cheered. I had at least 20 different people who must have watched at some point come up and ask me how it was out of curiosity. It was a brief 2 or 3 minutes of minor celebrity.
I would say, for those who are physically able, this is a classic hike in the state of Michigan. Its definitely an experience to be had for those who enjoy such things. Doing this in October on a 50 degree day was absolutely the way to do it. I can only imagine the misery of doing this in the heat of the summer when the sand is 100 degrees and the air not much better. Today, weather and temp were no factors in the climb.
Trip Info:
Trailhead Elevation: 1,039 ft.
Distance: 1.00 mi.
Elevation Gain: 578 ft.
Start Time: 12:24pm
End Time: 1:02pm
Descent: 6:23
Ascent: 15:04
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From the Overlook after the climb of the slope |
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You can see my track up the steep slope |
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Photo of signage at the visitor center showing the Lake Michigan Overlook Climb |
Track:
I have a track and waypoints from the activity all contained in the embedded Google Map. Check it out and use at your own risk.
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