Warren Dunes, Lake Michigan

-
End of April brings with it the joy of summer holidays. Although 'summer-holidays' does not mean much to a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D, it does provide more time to balance research with non-academic fun. It also marks the beginning of pleasant weather, at least for a few months, and lots of hiking options for amateurs such as myself.

Warren Dunes State Park is just off of Interstate 94W close to the exit 16. About 160 miles from Ann Arbor, approximately 3 hours drive, it is a perfect place for a weekend hiking trip. The trails here, along the lake Michigan's beach and the sand dunes are reasonably tough to hike (when done backwards) and takes roughly 6-8 hours. This time of the year, there is hardly any crowd there, making it very peaceful. On the downside, be sure to pack lunch and snacks and carry plenty of water! none of the eating options are open. One would have to travel for several miles to find an eatery. Also, if you are thinking of hiking the sand trails barefoot, its a terrible idea! There are shards of broken glass on the trails probably from people partying.
Dune Hike - Warren Dunes State Park 
Lake Michigan Beach view from Dunes trail
If you follow google-maps, you will end up at the parking lot close to Mile marker 1. We spent about 6 hrs exploring the trail along 1-14-13-8-4-3 path. The Beach trail starts at marker 1 and ends close to marker 14. There are no visible boards to make a right turn, just a faint bootleg trail. A right turn there leads to a broken 'beach trail' board and eventually to marker 14 stump.
Beach Trail - Warren Dunes State Park
Lake Michigan Beach - Warren Dunes State Park 
Random clicks along the beach trail
Trail 8-4-3 leads through a nice, cool, Warren Dunes nature area. Early spring offers plenty of greenery, a few flowers and meandering streams, making this a very relaxing hike.
Random Clicks along the Warren Dunes Nature Trail
If you choose to make a right at marker 8, which we did, leads to a very hard climb of the Mt. Randall, eventually leading to spectacular views of the beach. The cool breeze and the mild sun (it is almost 5 PM) and soft sand is now the perfect place to relax after a tough day of hiking.
Relaxing on the dunes after a strenuous hike
St. Joseph North Pier lighthouse is located at the mouth of St. Joseph river as it pours into Lake Michigan. Located 20 miles from Warren Dunes beach, it is very nice, peaceful place to watch the sun set over the lake Michigan. Unfortunately it was cloudy and started to rain when we got there!
St. Joseph North Pier Lighthouse
Nonetheless, the ambience near the lighthouse beach is soothing. This was our last stop before driving back to Ann Arbor. Overall, it was a very pleasant trip, and I am definitely revisiting these places perhaps during another season.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tulip Festival 2014, Holland, MI

-
Image
Tulip Festival at Holland, MI typically takes place between 1st and 2nd weeks of May. Holland is about 2.5 hrs West of Ann Arbor and is near the shores of Lake Michigan. We had previously been to Holland in August (see, Holland, MI - Summer 2013 ) and really wanted to attend the Tulip time festival this year. Unfortunately, we heard from people who visited Holland at the start of this year's festival that Tulips weren't in full bloom yet. So, we chose the last day of the Festival, which was this past weekend, to visit Holland. Some of the main attractions in Holland, MI are the Dutch Village, Windmill Island and the Tulip gardens. This was a day trip. We left Ann Arbor early in the morning and it took us longer than we anticipated due to construction along I-96. Our first stop was the Nelis' Dutch Village. Niels' Dutch village is a theme park built to replicate the life style in a typical village in Netherlands in 1800's. During this tulip time festival, almos
Read more

Cuyahoga Valley National Park - Pittsburgh - Niagara Falls

-
Image
This was a 4 day trip during the July 4th long weekend. Just over 3 hours from Ann Arbor, Cuyahoga Valley national park  (CVNP) has a lot to offer for a biking enthusiast. The meandering cuyahoga river on one side, the remnants of the Ohio-Erie canal on the other, and greenery all around makes it perfect for a biking trip during a cool summer day. We started off on Thursday July 3rd from Ann Arbor around 9 AM and reached the Peninsula Depot Visitor Center . After a quick lunch, we rented out bikes at the Century Cycles , visible from the visitor center. Bike rental costs about $9/hour, so we decided to bike for 3 hours. After packing our bags we headed north from Peninsula depot on the towpath trail.   Towpath Trail - CVNP Remains of a Lock - used to raise or lower boats in the canal Cuyahoga River Lilies and black eyed susan flowers along the towpath trail After biking for about 7 miles, we decided to head back. CVNP has a scenic railroad . For $3 we c
Read more

DC - Boston - NYC: Christmas 2013 - New Year 2014

-
Image
This trip was a great success thanks to all the friends and family who hosted us. It was a cold Christmas eve morning when we left Ann Arbor and headed to Washington DC. This was our first stop during the 10 day trip. The plan was to spend Christmas in DC and New Year in New York and a few days in between at Boston. Day-1: After reaching DC, we decided to spend the evening at the Museum of Natural History. It closes at 5:30 PM, so we had about 2-3 hrs. Having been there multiple times, I knew fully well that this was not enough. So, we decided to tour the dinosaurs and precious stones (geology, minerals etc) exhibits. I was surprised to see that long before the UM undergrads and grads, dinosaurs roamed the area where now Univ. of Michigan stands, Go Blue! Go Pre-historic Blue! With the T-Rex and the gems We don't know how the 3hrs went! We left the museum around 5:30 and decided to explore the monuments in the National mall. The sunset behind the Washington monument
Read more