Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes

For our Easter weekend we decided it was time to go camping! In talking to a few people camping doesn't really get started until the end of May or June but we weren't really wanting to wait that long. We had an extra day off work and I spent it cleaning up the house while Kevin spent it getting all of our camping stuff out and organized for the weekend. Since it's the first time we've gone since moving it took a little longer and we had to evaluate things we needed. Then we were ready first thing Saturday morning for the drive to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes.

Our first climb of the dunes

 It took about three hours to get there and before setting up camp we wanted to check out the famous sand dunes. They are located right off of Lake Michigan and they seem so randomly situated. Very beautiful though! We started walking up the first dune next to this parking lot and it was so steep! Talk about a good workout!

At the top of the first dune

We kept going after that and then had to gear up for another steep climb. 

Kevin made a run for it and only made it halfway!

Our plan was to make it to Lake Michigan until we finally caught a glimpse of it and realized how far away it was. We settled for a nice view from a distance. 

View from the top

 After our hike we headed to the campsite to get setup for the night. Being so early in the season it wasn't very crowded at all and most of the sites right next to ours were empty so it felt a little more excluded. While out collecting wood we ran into a guy who had camped the night before and was staying until Monday. He told us it was really really cold the last night (low 24!) and that while it wasn't going to be that cold this night it was going to rain. Call us crazy but we were kind of excited. We've always had good weather camping and we've been wanting to try out our tent in the rain to see how it did. Our wish was going to come true!

Kevin getting ready for a fire.

 It wasn't going to rain until after 10pm sometime so we slowly got ready. We picked up stuff as we went along so that by 10pm all we had out were our chairs and us and we were pretty much ready for bed too. Shortly after 10pm we gradually started hearing the wind pick up. About 30 minutes later a big gust of wind blew and we thought...we better get in the tent. No sooner had we put the chairs in the car and spread out the coals of the fire it started to sprinkle. We quickly made our way to the tent and as we zipped up the rain really started coming down.

 Our tent performed fabulously and kept us dry all night (and it rained all night). The only bad part came at about 2am when I had to go to the restroom. I didn't want to head out in the rain but there was no way I was going to make it until morning. There is one particular skill I learned as a cross country runner that came in handy that night....'popping a squat'. I managed to do this in the small vestibule of our tent and not get anything on our tent at all. Still dry and now very comfortable! Had to share because I was pretty proud of myself.

The next day we opted for another hike on another section of the sand dunes. This one made it easier to get down to the water. This is actually Sleeping Bear Bay next to Lake Michigan.

It was just us for a long time! Absolutely beautiful!

A little further on our hike we came across Devil's Hole. There used to be trees until the sand eventually covered them killed them leaving these 'ghost trees'.

We had a fantastic weekend and we're excited to plan our next camping trip. There is so much of Michigan to explore!