This would have us arriving just after check-out time at our next stop, but a full 2-hours before check-in time. We are now at the D. H. Day campground in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore where every site, everyday, is booked this time of year.
The Ranger at least checked us in and gave us our permit, but asked that we not go directly to the site and set up in order to give the staff time to clean up and prepare our site for a new arrival.
We first went to the dump station and half way filled our fresh water tank to get us through our 3-day reservation and then proceeded to drive past our site to see if it had been cleaned yet. It looked ready for us, but we drove around the entire campground anyway to check out the area before going back to our site and setting up.
We didn't see anyone "cleaning" any of the sites, so we figured they were all done and it would be OK to do so.
Empire is a very small and very busy town and our lunch choices were limited, so we headed back to the little bit larger town of Glen Arbor, closer to the campground, where we had more choices of where to eat.
It was also the same town we drove through with THE POD earlier today and we knew there were multiple restaurants, plus a tea shop Tricia wanted to check out. After lunch at the Good Harbor Grill we walked a few doors down the road to the tea shop and 15-minutes later walked out with over $70 in tea.
We'll be moving 17-miles down to the southern end of the Southern Secton of the park on Thursday and will report on what we find there in the next post.
THE NORTHERN HALF OF THE SOUTHERN SECTION
OF
SLEEPING BEAR DUNES NATIONAL LAKESHORE
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The "Thing To Do" in the northern half of the lakeshore is simply called "The Dune Climb".
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It's about 3½-miles round trip if you hike up the dune and down the other side and then return.
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It may be fun for the kids and young at heart,but Tricia and I looked at each other and both shook our heads "NO" at the same time.
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The 2nd most fun thing to do is drive the 7.4-mile long Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive.Pierce Stocking once owned the property and in 1967 he built the road we drove on today.
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There is a covered bridge near the beginning our the route.
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From the overlooks you can see more dunes and even Lake Michigan.
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Near the halfway point the road leaves the forest and wanders in the wide open spaces.
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The main attraction of the drive is Stop #9, the Lake Michigan Overlook.By the amount of haze floating over the parking lot I didn't expect to see much.
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And we didn't! The whole place was like we were in a cloud.
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This woman seemed to be struggling getting back to the top of the dune.
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Back on the Highway 109 we passed by the D. H. Day Ranch and it's magnificent barns.
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The largest of the three was massive and very impressive.
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It looks as if they are currently restoring the farmhouse to match the barns.|
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Before returning to THE POD for lunch we explored around the Glen Haven Historic Village. The National Park Service owns the village and all the buildings in it which includes a half dozen homes, the Sleeping Bear Inn B&B (which is open for overnight rentals), a blacksmith shop, a general store and an old cannery building which now houses a museum.
Just a half mile further down the road is where we found the Sleeping Bear Point Maritime Museum with it's 1902-1940 Coast Guard Station and outbuildings that are filled with artifacts from the period it was active.
Most of it was similiar to what we shared last week so I didn't include any photos this time.
The following three photos were all taken through our dinette windows in THE POD today.
We looked out the window just in time to see him gobble down a mouse.
Thanks "Hootie" for keeping that nasty mouse out of our house.
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