Finally the post you’ve been waiting for, the sleeping bear dunes post!

Towards the end of May my mother and I planned a trip up to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park. After last years endeavors we really needed a vacation! For only staying three nights, we really did a lot!

We stayed at Platte River Campground and at one point had to move to another site because we could only reserve the camp for 2 nights. On our third day there our neighbors, a couple that gave is firewood the night before, let us have their site since they had to leave early. We were really grateful because that meant we could drag our tent across the street! Which we did 😉 lol!

After our first night, we visited the small town of Empire. We were a little creeped out at first because as we entered, a thick and very cold fog came out of nowhere! The locals said it happens all the time there from being so close to lake Michigan. Assured we were then safe we checked out the bar above and got some amazing food for lunch. It was our only dining out.

We cooked most of our meals on the fire or in the skillet that we brought. One thing in particularly that I was proud of cooking was corn on the cob on the open fire. ❤ We had a lot of fires!

We really met some wonderful people at the campground. ❤ Another gentleman, that reminded me of my late great uncle, let me use his axe to cut our wood and even showed me how to use it. The last person we met there was an older woman that went through similar chemo treatments as my mother. She told us of a few places to visit and one of them was of a lighthouse that we were then determined to see.

While I took pictures, my mother took hers and she even collected a few stones as souvenirs.

Everywhere we went the water had a crystallized blue shine…..

The only bad thing about being around the water was that the bugs were everywhere. If you zoom into the pictures above, on either side, were hundreds of black spots…ewww!

Even though the bugs were a nasty part of the trip, there were so many beautiful things we continued to see. Like a cute shop and Cherry Republic in another town.

Beauty was everywhere, near water and trilliums close to the roadsides.

The last thing we did was visit the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. I made sure to get a picture from both sides of the first attraction. Then we took off to the next.

Then the next…

This particular spot was not on the map. I found this tree 6 years ago when I visited Sleeping Bear Dunes by myself. Since it had a profound affect on me, I wanted to visit it again ❤.

When I first saw this tree, it was covered with the scars from couples knives. It really saddened me until I looked up and saw what I thought looked like two people kissing (Though I guess the one is faceless… Oh well lol). The love that I then saw from this tree made me wonder, did the tree grow this way because of the “love” carved into it. Or did the scaring never faze it’s love to grow?

Nearby my personal spot was the third attraction, the dune overlook.

Though the other sites were pretty as well, I really liked the 9th location the best.

Lastly was the 10th attraction. I was surprised to see a change in the water level here. Six years prior I could have sworn that there were two seprate lakes near lake Michigan.For more information about the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive Check out this “link“.

Once we left here we headed back home.

I’m kinda glad we left when we did because the memorial day weekend traffic was beginning to show up!

We had such a wonderful time and even got to see a few hearts here and there. That said, I finally got to share this wonderful place with someone else and I’m happy it was with my mother! It had been 6 years since my last visit in 2012.

Next weeks post will be covering my experiences of the first trip to sleeping bear dunes. See you next Thursday! ❤