Backpacker Magazine – August 2012

From The Field: Central

Our trail scouts' top local hikes

by: Sarah L. Stewart

Tags:
• FromTheField
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• Destinations
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• West
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• August
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Dunes Trail, Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, MI
Lisa Myers Empire, MI

Roller coaster through a four-square-mile complex of sand dunes perched atop a glacial moraine on this 3.5-mile out-and-back to blue-green Lake Michigan. Enticing as the water is, don’t forget to look down: “On the dunes closest to the lake, you’ll see big clumps of endangered Pitcher’s thistle in pale pink bloom in July and August,” Myers says, plus seagulls, cormorants, and endangered piping plovers on the shoreline. “When the wind bends the dune grasses low, they make patterns in the sand.” Trip ID 999807

“Try the route sans shoes in the evening for cooler sand.”



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