After parking the car, I told Chuck I wanted to climb up the dune a little ways before we went on a bike ride.
Like most everyone else, I pulled off my flip-flops and climbed up barefooted.
It was a pretty steep climb so I stopped at the top of the first rise. Hey, Chuck, do you see me?
From where I was standing, I could see Glen Lake off in the distance...
...and my photographer (Chuck) in the orange circle at the bottom of the hill.
This is what I looked like to him at the top of the rise in the tiny red circle.
The trip back down big sand dune was much easier than the climb up!
After I got back down, we got on our bikes and rode on the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail towards Glen Haven.
There were some very severe storms that came through this area two weeks ago. The storms were so severe that many trees blew over or were snapped in two. The trail just reopened a few days ago.
We rode our bikes to the U.S. Life-Saving Service Station Maritime Museum.
We went to the boathouse first where the life-saving boats were kept.
If a boat or shipping vessel ran aground or began to sink and the crew needed to be rescued, the service men at the Life-Saving Station would first try shooting a line out to the damaged boat and then bring the crew in via a "Breeches Buoy Rescue."
If that didn't work, they would roll the life-saving boats out on rails out of the boathouse down to the water and try to rescue the crew by the boats.
The service men would wear life vests made out cork to keep them afloat.
We walked over to the house and living quarters of the service men.
It was a demanding job and required diligent training and always keeping the boats and equipment ready to go on a moment's notice. This U.S. Life-Saving Station has not been in use since the 1940's and was replaced with the Coast Guard which still work to help sailing vessels throughout the Great Lakes.
After leaving the life-saving station, we began our ride back to the car at the Dune Climb parking lot.
After we loaded the bikes on the car, we drove to the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. There were some trees down from the storm along this drive as well.
Our first stop was the Glen Lake Overlook.
We decided that it was 2 pm, we would stop at the first picnic area we came to for lunch. What better place for a picnic than Picnic Mountain?
We climbed up Picnic Mountain...
...and had our picnic lunch at the picnic table at the top of Picnic Mountain. :)
After eating our lunch, we continued the scenic drive with our next stop being the Dune Overlook...
...where we could see the dunes I had just climbed and the parking lot we had just come from...
...and we could see Lake Michigan way off in the distance.
We could also see Glen Lake and the thin strip of land separating Little Glen Lake from Big Glen Lake.
Our next stop was the Sleeping Bear Dune Overlook where the trail to the overlook takes you out on top of the dunes.
People were walking from here straight down the dune down to the edge of the water. We walked out to the overlook...
...where we could see people walking down the dune to the water.
The dunes are very steep. Notice all the people using their hands and feet to climb back up.
And the dunes are very, very tall.
There were some people swimming in Lake Michigan at the bottom of the dune too.
The wind was blowing very hard and the sand was blasting us as we walked back to the trail. I'm glad we were not climbing down or up that tall, steep dune!
Our last stop was the North Bar Lake overlook.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a beautiful park with a lot of nice hiking and biking trails. Despite being sandblasted, our favorite part was the Sleeping Bear Dune Overlook. Gritty but worth it! :)
On the ride back to the camper, we stopped at a fruit stand to buy some cherries. Traverse City is known for its sweet cherries. When we got back home, I washed them off and put a few in a bowl for us to try.
They weren't any good.
Just kidding! They were DELICIOUS!!!! So sweet! I think we will be buying some more sweet cherries before we leave! :)
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