The Dunes

Tuesday, September 16

SUNSHINE!!! We awoke to sunshine and a promise of temperatures in the high 50s with little wind. We couldn't wait to be on the road and see the beauty of this area between Traverse City and Lake Michigan especially on a gorgeous day.

Our drive took us through the town of Interlochen home of the National Music Camp but their season is over so we didn't stop to check that out.  Instead we continued on to Empire where the Visitor Center is for the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park.  What a sight when we pulled into the parking lot - it was full of classic cars!!!

A national classic car club was on a trip up the shoreline of Lake Michigan.  We chatted with a couple from California, saw a Texas plate and a lot of others from out of state.  What a way to travel. They, too, were headed to the dunes and then were moving on to Traverse City so we saw those fancy cars in every lot at lookout points.

It sure added to the beauty of the day.

After viewing the movie about the park and looking at the displays, we set off on the seven mile loop through the park with the guide giving us info about each of the stopping points.  One of the first stops gave us this gorgeous view of Glen Lake with the "alligator" pennisula creating a small section and much larger one beyond.

We traveled through heavily forested areas of hardwoods and pines coming then to these views first of the dunes and Lake Michigan in the distance and

 second of one end of Glen Lake and Lake Michigan in the distance.

From there we moved on to the spot where the view is the most dramatic of the dunes themselves, especially of the sections without growth on them.  This dune is so steep that there is a posted sign advising people not to go down it as they might have difficulty coming back up and there is a stiff charge for "rescuing" you.  You can see a dark line down the middle where people have made the attempt.  The last time we were here several people were treking back up resting every few feet.

 Looking off to the right from this same viewing point this is what you see.

As you can see, in this next picture the dune continues further on up and there is a heavily traveled path of people checking it out including us.

On the way up there is this beautiful view of the dune area with Lake Michigan in the distance

 And then a wonderful view of The Lake

This is Ken heading back down after reaching the top

One of the classic car visitors took this shot of us before we left this beautiful viewing point.  As you can tell by our jackets it was sunny but still only in the 50s for our adventure.

Then we took Gary and Judy to "the climbing dune" which actually is a series of dunes that people can climb and walk for quite a distance to reach Lake Michigan.  We admitted to our inability to take on that much physical exertion BUT both of the guys climbed to the top of the first one and I went part way up

The tiny speck at the top of the dune here is Ken waving back at me down on the bottom

Here he is chatting with Gary at the midpoint as he was coming down and Gary going up

And then there is me, the wimp, who only went part way up 

  

By now we had worked up a pretty good appetite so we drove to Glen Arbor to the Cherry Republic where we had lunches - cherry bbq pulled pork, grilled cheese on cherry bread, cherry chili with cherry cold slaw with cherry ice tea, cherry cola, cherry coke, cherry drink with a fresh cherry in each. Get the gist?  The food all had cherries in it in some form or other.  Delicious!

Then we went next door to the shop itself

where we could sample some of the goodies for sale including a variety of trail mixes, jelly and jams, salsas, dried cherries, and chocolate covered cherries (a variety of white, red, and chocolate coverings).  Of course we couldn't leave without buying something - rather a few somethings :-)

We then drove back to Glen Haven, a small historical town that use to include a cannery and life saving station among other things.  Unfortunately everything was closed so we just took a few minutes to enjoy the views

and then continued on up into the Leelanau Peninsula where we could catch views of Grand Traverse Bay and a variety of farms - grape vines, fruit trees, and even some corn.  On our way back to Traverse City we passed through the charming town of Suttons Bay where we could see a large number of boats in the harbor.  Apparently the cold weather was keeping most of the them docked rather than out enjoying the blue sky day.

We traveled then up the very narrow Mission Peninsula with its gorgeous views of Traverse Bay as well as beautiful homes on cliffs with wonderful views of the water and of course lots more fruit trees and grape vines.  We also stopped at a couple of antique shops so Gary and Judy could look for miniatures and train items and then continued on to the tip to see the lighthouse.

and check out its view of the Bay and its rocky waters.

This cabin was also there and open for us to look in

We were then able to get back to Traverse City and to another large antique store which we closed when we left just before 6:00 pm.

It was time to return to our motorhomes to prepare and eat dinner, do some clothes washing, download pictures and write this blog and prepare for our move tomorrow to Grand Rapids.

Another beautiful travel day has come to an end