Our first hike was pretty awesome. It took us a while to find a way to the trailhead because there was a car race going on blocking the way. So we had to stop and ask how to get there. But once we did it was amazing. Talk about a view. The Empire Bluff trail did not disappoint. And it’s dog-friendly.
The next morning we went on the Dunes scenic drive loop. Which is gorgeous and 100% recommend. Theres a bunch of pull offs to get out and look at the pretty things. Well we ended up combing a few trails, maybe went a little off trail… We started on the cottonwood trail and veered off to the dune climb trail towards the beach. Let me tell ya, hiking on sand is no joke. We took plenty of little breaks.
We finally made it to Sleeping Bear Dunes beach. Wow! Tropical vibes. Amazingly blue water. Lake Erie should be ashamed by how blue Lake Michigan is. The water was cold but it was welcome from the hot trek through the sand dunes.
The beach was so gorgeous tha we just started walking along it. I had found a trail on Alltrails that kind of followed the beach and looped around back to the Dune Climb trail. So we decided to do that. What a great walk along the beach. Perfect day for it. But once we got out of the beach area and started heading back to the Dune Climb trail, things got a little hairy. We got a little lost, had to backtrack some, bushwacked through some forested area, and made our way down a steep dune. But we made it onto a bike path that got us back to the Dune Climb trail parking lot. Only thing was that we were a little bit further on the scenic drive…up another steep dune. That one was tough. We had to crawl lol. But we made it.
