Distance: 2.8 miles Type: Foot path Terrain: Open dunes, ghost forests, Lake Michigan Difficulty: Moderate The Dunes Trail is actually two separate routes through the dunes in this corner of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and most visitors head to just one of them - the park's popular Dune Climb and its 4-mile round-trip trek to Lake Michigan. Not nearly as many people make their way to the other trailhead at the end of M-209 located on Sleeping Bear Point itself. Yet step-for-step few trails anywhere in the state are as interesting as this route where the open dunes create excellent vantage points and the Manitou Passage provides a good reason to stop and gaze. Don't underestimate this short hike. Walking in sand can be strenuous and in the middle of the summer sunglasses, a wide-brimmed hat, suntan lotion and a quart of water are needed to survive the desert-like heat that radiates off the dunes. But this trek is not nearly as long or strenuous for young children as the trail from the Dune Climb. And when combined with a visit to the park's Sleeping Bear Point Coast Guard Station Maritime Museum and a dip in the cooling waters of Lake Michigan after the hike, I can't think of a better way for a family to spend an afternoon in the park.   Click Here to Print a Trail Map:

Return to Sleeping Bear Dunes homepage A ghost forest seen along the Dunes Trail. Directions to this Trail Click Map to Enlarge it.

Trail Guide:

Despite the shifting sand, following the route is easy due to a series of tall, blue-tipped posts. You begin in the woods but quickly are climbing out of the trees near a posted junction. The spur to the right leads a quarter mile through a blowout carved by the wind to a stunning beach along Lake Michigan. The loop heads left.

In a little more than a half mile you top off at the first panorama of the day; there are views in every direction you look. To the west is the Manitou Islands, to the northeast the towering bluffs of Pyramid Point, to the south rolling dunes. At your feet are the many shades of Lake Michigan.

The trail skirts the dune above the point and the panoramic views get even better. Eventually you swing south, descend to a plain of windswept sand and follow blue-tipped poles in crossing it. At the end of the first mile you pass a ghost forest where trees were killed by the migrating dunes and then bleached white by the sun. Another ghost forest is passed and then the trail takes you on a long uphill march, topping off on a series of grass-covered dunes and views of this barren corner of the park. To the south you can peer into Devil's Hole, a rugged ravine forested at the bottom by stunted trees.

Almost 2 miles into the loop, the trail begins to loop back and you begin heading in a northerly direction along the crest of another high dune, where the views of Glen Lake are good and any wind off Lake Michigan refreshing. In less than a half mile you drop into the quiet, protected spruce and birch of the forest. There is a sense of relief if you're hiking in the middle of the summer as the cooling shade of the trees is a welcome change to the hot sand. At 2.8 miles the trail emerges from the forest at the trailhead and parking area.