Destination: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park

The Sleeping Bear Dunes are located about fifteen minutes outside of Frankfort, MI and about forty minutes away from Traverse City in Empire. When I was a little girl, the Sleeping Bear Dunes weren't a national park. I'm really excited that, coming back up here, they are!

There's two big parts to the Sand Dunes National Park: the Scenic Drive and the Dune Climb. The Scenic Drive will take you around the back of the Dunes, giving you a view from the dunes of Glenn Lake and Lake Michigan. There's a cool stop off on the drive where you can explore a variety of trails. I wouldn't call it a hike, but more of a walk. If you are able, I would definitely get down and do that! I had a fun adventure just walking around for about 20 minutes and climbing up some of the sand mounds. I think it was the 3rd stop.

The Lake Michigan view is absolutely the most gorgeous, but the dune that you do NOT want to climb down! There's a sign (I've got a picture below) where they say there are rescue fees and it will take 2 hours to climb back up. They mean it. No, I don't know from personal experience, but my dad's personal experience :D

Disclaimer on these dune climb: the Dune Climb was SO much taller when I was a kid. Maybe it's because I'm a taller person or because the dune isn't as tall, but I didn't feel like I was going to fall down and topple over running down the sand dune.

VLOG coming soon at the end of our trip :)

Destination: Up North Michigan

For those of you that follow me on Instagram, you know that I have been up in Michigan these past couple of days. WOHOO! Guys, you have NO idea how excited I am to be back up here! You see, until about the time that I was 9, we would come up here every summer for two weeks. Coming back up at age...not 9 haha...I've been surprised what I do and don't remember. It's been so much fun rediscovering the places that I romped around as a wee one--the beaches that I played on, the lighthouses I looked at, and the sand dunes that I climbed.

The adorable and SUPER nice cottage that we are staying at is right on Crystal Lake. Literally the lake is 20 feet from the back porch and there's it's own cute little beach.

Other than chilling at the house, we've also visited Frankfort Beach, Empire Beach, the Platte River, and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park.

Check out the next post specifically about the Sleeping Bear Dunes! Alas, it's been a blast and it's not even over yet! If you have ANY questions about traveling about here, please let me know--this is turf that myself and my family are very familiar with!