What beautiful climbing adventure. And perfect weather. Dunes on a cool day in early June gives all the advantages to such.
The parking lot, a loop with a foot washer-offer in the middle, was almost full. As had been described in 50 Hikes by Jim DuFresne, “a midday hike on a summer weekend results in encounters only with the kind of wildlife that wears bathing suits and carries in beach towels and suntan lotion.” That was basically when we were hiking: on a Sunday evening around 6:00.
We started out by going on the North Trail, which was fairly quiet. In truth, once we got past the connecting trail, we didn’t see anyone at all. That’s one of my favorite things about these hikes: the solitude.
The natural beauty is one of my favorite things too. I find the different types of dunes fascinating. We started out in the woods, and then, without interruption in the woods, came to sandy trail, as if it had been imported from the beach to make a decent pathway. We were in the rear dunes or the established dunes, or whatever you want to call them.
It did open up a bit more after that, as we went through the slack towards the foredunes. Since I just looked it up again, I’d better explain. The slack is the low part between the dunes, and the foredunes are the newer formations that are closer to the wind source.
We headed back into the woods. Not there yet! We passed a pretty flower I couldn’t identify. There was only one, and one of the few flowering things we saw.
Sorry it’s blurry. There were mosquitoes!
I took the weather-beaten trees as a sign we were getting closer. Trees don’t look like this when they’re all sheltered!
Finally, the well-trampled slipface. “This is it!” I said. You don’t see random piles of sand in the woods for nothing. Well, unless you do, but it was pretty obvious here.
I don’t know if I’ll ever get tired of the view one gets when looking at Lake Michigan, but it didn’t take me by surprise as much as it did last year. Having grown up around a bunch of regular lakes, this big one is still pretty incredible to me.
We decided to walk above the beach, seeing as I was in my sturdy leather boots (I call them “hiking boots,”) and we got a better view anyway from up here.
I am no photographer. I am well aware of the fact that if a picture is worth a thousand words, mine are only worth about five hundred. I will never be asked to take pictures at someone’s wedding (what a relief) and I won’t be found on the cover of Nature Today anytime in the near ever. (I’m just assuming there’s something called Nature Today. I haven’t looked it up or anything, but it’s such a catchy name I’m sure it’s out there.) The point is, I’m going to have to describe the next picture. Bear with me.
I find the nature of sand to be quite fascinating. One of the most fascinating aspects is how it piles up so steeply (aka dunes) but even more fascinating is how it piles up in places it seems like it shouldn’t. Like in the woods (see five pictures back). Here, it looks like someone made a sand-ramp up to the dry beach on the foredune. I mean, the sand just drops right off on the sides. We were walking above the forest floor. How cool is that! I do believe the sand-ramp came about from wind and foot tramping, but that doesn’t negate any of the cool factor.
We took the Beach Trail back, as opposed to heading down to the Livingston Trail like how the book suggested. Our route was about two miles and we did it in an hour. We did indeed see some of that wildlife that Jim described (can I say Jim, or do I have to say Mr. DuFresne?), but the fact that it is a decent walk to the beach keeps out a lot of extra bikini traffic, I’m sure. The parking lot was still pretty full when we got back to the car, which means the place is big enough to absorb a fair number of people without a problem. I plan to hike this one again, and the whole route. Definitely worth it.
Obligatory park driveway photo.
liz hugo 