WEDNESDAY AUGUST 24TH, 2011

The Ojibway say that many years ago, in a place now called Wisconsin, lived a mother bear and her two cubs. One day a raging forest fire forced them to swim across Lake Michigan. It was a very long swim. Soon, the two cubs grew tired and fell behind their mother. When the mother bear came to the shores of Michigan, she climbed the high bluff and watched for her cubs. Her cubs were in sight of the shore but too tired to make it and drowned. The Great White Spirit, who watched over all the animals, turned the cubs into the islands of North and South Manitou. Exhausted and knowing that her cubs were now safe, she fell fast asleep. The Great Spirit covered her with sand to keep her warm as she still watches over her cubs from her spot atop the giant hill made of sand. We call her Sleeping Bear Sand Dune.





We were able to rent a car for the day so thought a road trip to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park was in order. Our friends Richard and Carol from SALT N SAND joined us. Just last week on Good Morning America they announced that this park was voted the most beautiful place in America (if you can see it) by their viewers. Figured we better check it out.

We took the scenic drive. This is a photo of Glen Lake from one of the scenic overlook stops. Amazing isn’t it? Did I mention earlier about the pea soup thick fog?










We bagged the scenic drive and headed to Glen Haven. Glen Haven has restored buildings of a once thriving community. A man named D. H. Day came here in 1878 and had a tremendous impact on the area. He looks like he didn't get cold wearing this coat, but I couldn't help but wonder how much it would have weighed?

His business was providing cord wood to the steam powered ships. With the advent of coal burning engines, he switched his business to a sawmill and shipping lumber. The deforested areas he turned in to farmland and had one of the finest pure bred Holstein herds in the state. During the early 1900’s he imported 5,000 cherry and apple trees, thus pioneering the areas first orchards.

He built this cannery not for processing fish,








but for canning fruit.













We had packed picnic lunches so sat at a picnic table overlooking Lake Michigan. The sun came out and the fog started to lift so we thought we’d give the scenic drive one more chance and took off.









Along the way we stopped at the Dune Climb. This picture is from the top. The start of it was about 150 feet, and steep! A 25% grade. We had to stop a couple of times to catch out breath. It was a very windy day but luckily for us it rained last night so we weren’t being sandblasted with flying sand.









This is Ross and Richard on the way back down.


















Richard was curious as to how much of an impact the people climbing up and down on the dune had? When we reached the bottom his wife Carol took us over to a display that answered the question. This measurement beam was placed the edge of the dune in 1985. So it looks to me like the dune has been advancing about 2 feet per year.





We did the Scenic Drive loop again and I retook the first photo. It was still a bit hazy, but you get the idea.