Have you every run a 5K race in a sandbox? A really hilly sandbox?
While we were in northern Michigan last weekend we did. Sort of. We visited the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park. It’s a place my family visited regularly when we were kids, and I looked forward this trip to climbing the dune. (Click on the photos to see them more clearly.)
Tiny people on a really big pile of soft sand.
After you climb the initial dune you can follow a trail all the way to Lake Michigan. For some reason I thought it was about 1.25 miles to the lake. On our way out to the lake we figured out from signs that it was longer. When we got back to the car and read the brochure we learned that the round trip is 3.5 miles. Huh.
Still a long way to go.
It felt like a really long way on the way out. Every time we came to another steep hill we just knew that the lake was on the other side. But what we always saw was more of this.
Yep. More sand.
After many many steep sandy hills we finally made it to the lake…
Finally!
…along with several other exhausted and hot people.
Lots of people resting after their long walk through the sand.
The lake was cold, but it sure felt good on my hot feet.
Ahhhhh….
After a bit of a rest I filled our water bottle from the lake for the long trek back to the car. We had underestimated how much water we needed for our hike, and we drank the entire bottle on the way out. I decided we’d risk drinking lake water on the way back. Better than no water at all…and in fact it tasted pretty darn good.
Not wanting to leave the lake for the long walk back.
Now that we knew how difficult the walk would be we were a little bit intimidated. But we made it back in about an hour. An hour to do 1.75 miles. Of sandy hills. In the heat.
Almost back, the parking lot is just down that big dune.
Let’s just say we don’t have to do that again real soon.
But I bet we do it again someday.
Neat – except for the running out of water part! I would like to go there some day.
Fun…But I like climbing the dunes right off Lake Michigan….Well really, I like sitting under an umbrella, drinking ice water, watching other people climb the dunes…and if I have a few cold grapes to munch on..perfect!
Pretty pictures.
Walking on soft sand is EXHAUSTING! Your legs must have been killing you the next day. Well worth it though.
I remember the first time I saw Lake Michigan, it looked like an ocean, not a lake, to my 8 year old eyes. It’s magnificent.
Sounds like a great walk, but perhaps best done in the fall. Or spring? Thank you for sharing!
Just think of all that sand in Katies fur! We use to play in sand dunes all the time as kids – and yes – walking in them can be exhausting!
The going is always harder on sand, Dawn. That’s why it’s such good exercise!
The first picture looks like desert and others are like oasis with lots of water; what an interesting place to visit.
I have heard of Lake Michigan and now I hope I could have a chance to visit it. Oh gosh, there are so many places in the States that I’d love to visit but they are so far away from me. Well, unless I’m willing to take about or more than 24 hours flight. Sigh!
I AM IMPRESSED! You climbed the dune face AND went on, all the way to Lake Michigan? I have climbed the dune exactly twice. Once, when my son was a toddler, his dad and I climbed the dune face and hiked what for what seemed an eternity until we finally came to a sign that read “LAKE MICHIGAN – 5 MILES.” We turned back. More recently (but still several years ago, maybe 6 years ago) I climbed the dune with my stepdaughter and her two little boys (no longer little), but instead of going straight up we veered to the left to the clump of trees visible from the parking lot. On our way up, a man had told us that the view was just as good from there. Now I tell people I’m not sure I’ll ever climb the dune again. And you went ALL THE WAY TO THE LAKE! Man, oh, man………..
Oh, so P.S. If the round-trip walk these days is 3.5 miles, you know that quite a lot of sand has slipped off into Lake Michigan in 40 years.