So I spent half the day hiking the dunes and the beach on the South Shore of Lake Michigan at the Dunes National Park. Part of the National Lakeshore.
Home of the “Singing Sands”…..No really. The sand grains are nearly perfectly spherical and squeak when you walk on them.
It was a brisk 35 degrees with an 18 knot gusting wind, but I dressed for it.
The scenery isn’t spectacular, but it was pretty.
(That’s about 2 1/2 miles of beach…there was another 4 or so behind me)
All told, about 11 miles of walking on sand (My legs are telling me that I either need to do that more often, or never again) partly in the woods along the trails at the top and backside of the dunes, and partly on the lakeshore. The elevations changes from the beach to the top of the dunes was about 90 ft and I went up and down quite a few times.
I saw a total of 3 people until I was in the parking lot getting ready to leave. The solitude there was very nice.
I did pick up about 2 cubic feet of trash, but really not a lot for how far I walked. Mostly balloons that had fallen from the sly and were half-buried in the sand. Not the usual amount of bottles and plastic trash. No Covid masks, either.
Only two pieces of beach glass.
‘Twas a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Good for the blood pressure and calming to the soul. Better and closer than if I had been in church,…Know what I mean?
The Dunes !!!!
I love that area and wish I could go there every year !!!!
’tis but an hour drive, I think, from you. The best part is the 10 or 12 mile stretch from Burns Harbor at the edge of the old Bethlehem steel mill to Central Beach near Michigan City.
Come down,…..we can hike it. I’ll buy lunch
Well done, sir!
Were those ‘desert goggles’ need to maintain eye protection from blowing sand ?
That is a nice photo – I can almost feel the spray and wind coupled with the cold.
Dunes are a construct of the white male patriarchy.
The sand will be redistributed in the spirit of egalitarian equity.
Breaking-government takes over desert, sand shortage ensues.