Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

After we crossed over the Mackinac Bridge yesterday, we got a room in Mackinaw City for the night. Once again, we lucked out with a beautiful view of Lake Huron. And finally, I remembered to take a pic of the sunrise . . .


Our original plan was to spend some time in Mackinaw City doing all the "touristy" things, but then we changed our mind and decided to just head on down to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes. The drive to get there took us along the shore of Lake Michigan, really pretty.

Once we arrived at Sleeping Bear, we saw this huge mountain of sand . . .




Naturally, we had to climb it . . .

I got to the top of the dune, and took this picture of John about half way up.

This is what I saw at the top of the dune - more dunes!

And this is the view the other way - down.



When John got to the top, he took this photo of me

Some other people who were climbing told us there were seven dunes before you could see the water on the other side. We opted to go back down - it's a lot tougher than it looks! The sand is really soft and you seem to go two steps forward and one step back. The little kids were just running up and down with no problem, but us old folks had to take it a little slower. Still, it was fun!

We got back in the car and took the scenic drive to see the actual Sleeping Bear Dune. There is a story, a supposed Ojibwe Indian legend, about the Sleeping Bear Dune, and it goes something like this . . .

"Long ago, in the land that is now Wisconsin, a mother bear and her two cubs were driven into Lake Michigan by a raging forest fire. They swam and swam, but soon the cubs tired and lagged far behind. Mother bear finally reached the opposite shore and climbed to the top of a bluff to watch and wait for her offspring. But the cubs drowned. Today 'Sleeping Bear', a solitary dune in Michigan overlooking Lake Michigan, marks the spot where mother bear waited. Her hapless cubs are the Manitou Islands."

After hearing the story, of course I had to see the dune! So we drove to the area where supposedly you could easily view it. The visitor center was closing just as we arrived, but one of the ladies who works there, who was getting in her car to leave, told us to "just walk down there and you'll be able to see it!"

Sure! We walked "down there", and this is what we saw . . .

So we took a nice long hike along the shoreline until finally, we saw this . . .




Does that look like a bear to you? It doesn't to me either. But like John said, it's probably been a couple hundred years since the Indians told the tale, and wind, rain, and erosion have most likely changed the shape of the dune. In any case, this is "Sleeping Bear Dune". You just have to use a lot of imagination!

We hiked back down the beach and got in the car, and then drove to another place where you can hike up onto Sleeping Bear Dune. We got part way up and found this . . .

Most likely the wind has blown the sand away - one thing we have found - it's very windy here! Or maybe this is where Mama bear sleeps at night - in this nice soft burrow.

We drove along the scenic drive until we were out of the park. After awhile, it started to rain again, and we were treated to this . . .

A sunrise in the morning and a rainbow in the late afternoon - not too shabby!