Dune Climb and Scenic Drive

Once we left Glen Haven we drove south towards the "Great Dune Climb."  It seemed to be one spot that was open despite the season, and the weather actually worked in our favor.  The dune in question is rather tall and I've heard that normally people take one step up and two steps back.  However, it had rained the day or night before and so there was somewhat of a damp crust on top of the sand, making it much easier for us to climb.

The Dune Climb is the main attraction for the kids who love to run and roll down the dunes. Located just about 5 miles north of Empire on M-109, you can see it on the west side of the road. Visitors love to bring their children and friends to the Dune Climb because they remember how much fun they had playing in the dunes when they were here as children. Parents and grandparents enjoy watching the activities from a picnic table or blanket at the bottom of the dunes. It's a great spot for a picnic too. The Dune Center, located at the base of the Dune Climb, offers modern restrooms and a bookstore.
--from NPS Sleeping Bear Dunes website, Dune Climb page

Partway up the colors were very wise with blue, green, white, and tan.  There weren't too many other people climbing with us.

But there were enough people that I couldn't easily get a shot with nobody in view, ;-).

This is the view from the top of the dune.

I stitched this panorama together with several shots from my phone.

Amy was a bit chilly, but she enjoyed the climb up--especially as we did it together, holding hands most of the way.

On the way down I decided to record the trip.  It is a bit jerky since I was holding the camera and half-way running, but I hope it gives you an idea of the scale of the dune.

At the bottom I saw more flowers.

The bookstore was closed for the season and the only staff in the area was the person in the booth taking payment or checking passes before you could park and climb.  Knowing that we didn't have too much more time before we need to head south toward's my aunt's place (where we were spending the night) we headed towards the scenic drive.

The Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive is certainly a must-do activity when visiting Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. This 7.4 mile self-guided auto tour provides the visitor with insight to the history of the area, a sampling of the vegetative communities found within the park and, best of all, spectacular overlooks of the Glen Lakes, the Sleeping Bear Dunes and Lake Michigan.--from NPS Sleeping Bear Dunes website, Scenic Drive page

 We got to drive through this covered bridge early on in the drive.

Sadly the fall color wasn't fantastic, but there were plenty of leaves

Because of our limited time we didn't do much walking off of the drive (I think I only got out of the car once or twice for a couple pictures off the road), but we still saw some neat sights like this view of Lake Michigan.

There were a few wildflowers blooming also.

 I'm not sure what type of tree this is, but it looks amazing with its tangle of roots.

There were quite a few different types of tree in view also, some of which if I recall correctly may have been planted for logging purposes.

As I mentioned above there were several spots where you could park and walk for a short ways to enjoy even more scenic views.

 The water looked great from a distance.

After exiting the drive we headed south for my aunt's place.  The next day we drove home and as we didn't stop by any other notable place on the way home I have no more blog posts for this trip.  Thus ends my account of our September trip through New York, Ontario, and Michigan!

~Matt

PS Here are all of the pictures from Sleeping Bear Dunse:

Glen Haven

C. C. McCarty, brother-in-law of John E. Fisher, founder of Glen Arbor built a sawmill and an inn on the beach west of Glen Arbor in 1857. He called the settlement Sleeping Bearville and the inn was named Sleeping Bear House. McCarty built a dock at Glen Haven in 1865. The location of the dock in Sleeping Bear Bay offered a more protected harbor than some of the other docks in the area. McCarty also built a sawmill on Little Glen Lake where they used tugs to move logs from various parts of the lake to the sawmill and once the lumber was cut up, it was transferred to the Glen Haven dock by wagon or sled. By 1870, a tramway more than two miles long was built.
--from NPS Sleeping Bear Dunes site, Glen Haven page

Glen Haven is (as you can read above, especially via the link) a former lake-town that served the steamship trade in the Great Lakes.  After ships stopped calling in the early 1900s the area fell into disrepair and eventually the National Park Service eventually purchased the entire area.  I gather that during the summer it is a bustling area with interpreters and plenty to see.  Sadly when we visited everything was shuttered for the season.  We were able to see the outside of several buildings, but not much more than that.  Below is the Sleeping Bear Inn.

The Glen Haven Store normally serves as the visitor center in the area.  Sadly since it was closed I could not get a passport stamp--but I would definitely like to come back some time during the regular tourist season to be able to see

This boardwalk stretches through the entire town.  I can see how this would be especially useful before cheap concrete was available for sidewalks--and in areas like a beach this might be even better.

This is the blacksmith shop, which I believe operates as an actual shop during the summer.

This boat was located next to the beach.  I presume that it was either too large for the nearby museum building or deliberately out on display so that it could be seen in all seasons.  You can read more about it here.

The Aloha, part of the boat collection housed in the nearby Cannery, was built for fishing on the Great lakes.  She spent her days navigating deep waters of Lake Michigan gillnetting chubs--small, oily native fish especially prized as smoked fish.
--from exhibit signage

While Amy waited in the car I walked down to the beach.  There were several areas fenced off for restoration purposes, but it was a nice beach.  I imagine it is very nice in warmer weather--though I think the water of the Great Lakes usually stays cold.

I just changed my Facebook cover picture to this shot today.  I'm not the biggest beach lover, but I enjoyed the colors in this shot.

The beach wasn't completely sand.

This is the remnant of the great pier that once served the steamship trade.  After that trailed off the pier was allowed to deteriorate and only these pilings remain amidst the waves.

The old canning company building serves as a boat museum, but sadly again one that is only open during the tourist "season" in the summer.

Vintage signs (or replicas) are always fun to find.

David Henry Day came to Glen Haven in the mid-1800s as agent for the Northern Transportation Company.  A decade later, he had purchased the company, the town, and 5000 acres of adjacent timberland.  D.H. Day was a visionary; an entrepreneur...  He instituted a variety of sustainable forestry and logging practices still in use today.  DAy was one of the first people to plant fruit trees in the area.  Northern Michigan continues to produce a wide variety of fruit...  He donated land to the State of Michigan to creat its first state park and campground--what we now know as D. H. Day Campground.

To promote automobile tourism as a future industry for Glen Haven and the region, Day always properly graded the roads.  He personally financed the construction of M-109, which today is called the D. H. Day Highway, and was on the board of the West Michigan Pike.
--from exhibit signage

 For many years people could go drive on the dunes in cars with large balloon tires.  This activity was actually continued after the National Park Service took over, but when the person who started it passed away it was discontinued after a study concluded that damage was being done to the dunes.

I also found flowers like this on dunes later.

My last post about Sleeping Bear Dunes will feature the Dune Climb and the scenic drive.

~Matt

Coast Guard Station at Sleeping Bear

Tour the crew quarters and boathouse at the Maritime Museum at Sleeping Bear Point.  Exhibits highlight the U.S. Life-Saving Service and Great Lakes shipping history.  Short interpretive talks are given throughout the day.  A sand-accessible wheelchair and public restrooms are available.
--from NPS Sleeping Bear 2012 Visitor Guide newspaper

Until we visited this area I don't think I'd ever heard of the U.S. Life-Saving Service, but I ended up learning quite a bit about this predecessor to the U.S. Coast Guard.  The approach doesn't look like much, but it gets better, I promise.

This intriguing wheel chair was available to borrow and I can certainly understand why it was invented.  A regular chair would get nowhere off-road most places, let alone a very sandy beach.

The boathouse has two ramps leading out to the beach.  To facilitate movement over the sand the boats were mounted on wheels so they could be easily moved along tracks until they were at or near the water.

Here is one of the boats inside the shed.

There was quite a bit of equipment inside the boathouse as well as an older volunteer who was explaining much of it to some other guests when we arrived.

This is a Lyle gun.  It was designed to fire a heavy weight attached to a very long line towards a stranded ship.  The projectile would be fired over a line or pole on the ship to provide support for an apparatus that could be winched out to the ship to facilitate the rescuing of its crewmembers.

The rope was prepared ahead of time on these spindles to facilitate its rapid unwinding once the attached projectile was fired from the gun.  This apparatus was turned upside down to release all the rope, but because of the spindles it had been wound around it somewhat kept the shape once it was released from them--enough that it didn't tangle while in flight.

You could climb up next to one of the boats and look down inside it.

After leaving the boathouse we headed over to this building where the actual museum was located.  The structure is a Life-Saving Station that later became a Coast Guard Post.

Below you can see maps of various stations around the Great Lakes.

The U.S. Life-Saving Service was merged with the Revenue Cutter Service in 1915 to create the U.S. Coast Guard. This station was similar to the stations on North and South Manitou Islands and was typical of the 60 stations along the Great Lakes and many more on the Atlantic coast. The North Manitou Island station began operation in 1887 and closed in the 1930s, while the South Manitou Island station was built in 1901 and closed in 1958. There was another station at Point Betsie, just north of Frankfort, which began operations in 1876.
--from NPS Sleeping Bear Dunes website, History section

I believe this was a lighthouse light.

We saw a few mannequins showing some of the clothing that was worn.

The breeches buoy was often utilized to rescue people from boats after the Lyle gun had fired the rope out to the boat.

This video explains the drill that staff members went through to keep their skills honed.

The accommodations are a tad spartan.

Amy posed in the replica Pilot House, this room was recreated based on a turn of the century Great Lakes Steamer Pilot House (modified in the 1920s).

The Manby mortar, a predecessor of the Lyle gun, fired a projectile that carried a small rope to a wrecked vessel.  In one famous case, a Manby mortar helped save 201 lives from Ayrshire in January 1850.
--from exhibit signage

Once we left the museum building we walked out on the beach for just a bit.  It was a cold day, but the sight was still beautiful.

 A boardwalk took us most of the way, but it eventually petered out.

The colors were beautiful, blues of water and cloud with sand and green grass...

Next time we'll explore Glen Haven, a town that was built up to serve the steamships plying the Great Lakes.

~Matt