I mentioned it in my last post, but a recent trip to Michigan gave me a chance to drag Ryan up to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and show him all the fun things Traverse City has to offer.
We didn’t leave Ypsilanti until later Saturday afternoon because we were both exhausted from non-stop family visits after our 6 a.m. flight out of Phoenix. (6 a.m. flights mean we have to wake up at 1 to make it down to Phoenix from Flagstaff.)
But, I never thought I’d get a chance to bring Ryan up to Sleeping Bear during the summer, because fire season.
So, we crammed as much as possible into our brief overnight trip up north.
We checked into our hotel and then gathered our things and drove up to the northern-most point of Old Mission Peninsula. Ryan and I explored the Mission Point Lighthouse and waded out into Grand Traverse Bay for a bit.
After washing the sand off of ourselves, we hopped back into my old Ford Focus and drove south to check out some of the wineries.
Our first winery visit was Bowers Harbor Vineyards. I had a glass of the house red and we both enjoyed the relaxing vineyard views from our Adirondack chairs.
Afterward, we drove a little further south to Mari Vineyards, where Ryan and I both tasted several of the wines.
I really liked Mari. They focus on drier wines, which is great, because a lot of Traverse City-area wines lean a little sweeter. I love a good Traverse City cherry dessert wine, but it’s very hard to drink more than a small portion of it.
Ryan and I really enjoyed the dry reds and rosés at Mari.
We also really enjoyed the view!
After our quick wine tasting adventure, we went back to our hotel. Our hotel offered a free shuttle to and from downtown, which was a really sweet perk!
Our shuttle driver dropped us off at Little Fleet, which is a food truck depot similar to the one we enjoyed during our trip to Durango, Colo. earlier this year.
We walked around for a bit, and then made our way to The Filling Station, where we had dinner.
We called it a night after that.
The next morning, we woke up and went downtown to check out the shops and stores.
Ryan is a big fan of local outdoor supply stores, so we spent a few hours wandering through both Backcountry North and Boyne County Sports.
We also wandered around M22 (the store) and had ice cream at Kilwin’s as well as samples at Cherry Republic.
After wandering, we hopped back in the Focus for our trip up to Sleeping Bear!
The last time I visited Sleeping Bear was during my COVID summer of unemployment. It was nice to go back again!
We stopped at the Philip A. Hart Visitor Center to view the National Lakeshore exhibits, and then hopped in the car and drove out to the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. We made our way around the loop, stopping at the overlooks and spending a good amount of time at the Sleeping Bear Dunes Overlook.
The Sleeping Bear Dunes Outlook is probably the most famous part of this National Lakeshore. It’s easy to access — just a short walk off a close-by parking lot.
Just… don’t go down the sandy cliff if you can’t hike back up. It’s a pretty hefty rescue fee.
Ryan, of course, decided to make his way down the cliff and then back up.
He gave it a 10/10 for pain and declared it “Type 2 fun” for sure.
A few more photos from the overlook!
After our time at the overlook, we hopped back in our car and went for a quick hike. I’d originally wanted to do Dune Climb as redemption for my last visit to the lakeshore, but Ryan was NOT feeling another steep hike through ankle-deep sand dunes after climbing up the overlook.
We decided to do Sleeping Bear Point instead, which was a much milder hike at about 2.5 miles with 420 feet of elevation gain. However — it was pretty slow since we were trudging through sand for the first 45 minutes!
The first half-mile of the trail took us up to a little overlook over Sleeping Bear Bay, toward North Manitou Island and South Manitou Island.
Then we doubled back to the loop trail to finish our hike.
The trail was almost completely empty. We ran into two other couples during our excursion, and despite a few mild sprinkles and some cloud cover, the weather was perfect.
Half of the hike is through sand and the remainder is a typical trail, which we were thrilled to get to after the first mile-plus of a calf workout.
We strolled over dunes, across a lake shore, through ghost forests, into a lush fern-covered forest floor.
Such cool transitions in such a short hike!
And, that was it! We piled back into the car and drove out to the Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor for cherry beer, soft pretzels with beer cheese and an incredible grilled cheese sandwich made with rosemary cherry bread.
We finished our beers and made it back down to my sister’s place to finish up our Michigan trip.
I’m already missing northern Michigan and waiting until I can head back.
