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.