Big Piles of Sand

 

The weather Tuesday was supposed to be rainy all day.  Luckily the forecasts have been really off.  Yesterday this was not a positive feature but today we were happy that they were wrong.  We awoke to the last of the showers pushing through.  We headed South to Inspiration Point, just South of Arcadia, MI.  The name would imply a romantic setting and possibly with the right weather it might have been so.

As we worked our way South and West the skies went from dark to blue and dark again.  It was supposed to be warm today but Michigan warm is not Florida warm and luckily we had brought our jackets.  When we arrived, the rain had stopped but the clouds still lingered.  The Vista like views were quite truncated but it still was charming.  Charming but cold and windy, it was blowing 20 knots off the lake and was a chilly 56.

They have a nice observation platform by the parking lot and stairs leading up to an upper platform.  I imagine the views are stunning on a clear day but we only had the partial view which was still nice.  Our next stop was Frankfort.  We visited the local arts center, basically an art gallery with traveling exhibits.  For a town of 1,300 people, it was an impressive facility.  After culturing ourselves we headed to the lake shore.  

Frankfort is best known for the Frankfort North Pier Lighthouse, pictured above.  We parked by the beach and walked out along a long jetty into Lake Michigan.  The wind was blowing and in places the waves were breaking onto the jetty but at least the skies had begun to clear.   After our jetty trek we walked downtown Frankfort.  The town is quaint and it is likely packed during the season.  Our trip is pre-season and many businesses were not yet open.  

I had planned to stop for some fudge but being pre-season, the fudge store was not opening for another 30 minutes.  On the positive side, parking was easy.  Thwarted in my quest for fudge, we headed North to Empire, home of the Robert H. Manning Memorial Lighthouse.  The light is still in use but as lighthouses go it was a bit lacking in stature.  The views from the beach were nice though, we stayed just a few minutes and then stopped by the park visitor center before heading into the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park.

We started with the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive.  It had some descent overlooks and dunes to scale.  We still had the stiff breeze with the accompanying blowing sand but it was a good view.  After the loop we stopped by the main dune climb. It is a long way up and after the climb to the first summit, you then need to trek a few miles to get a lake view.  We did the big climb but passed on the arduous march.