Traverse City, Michigan

We made it safely back into the USA and through customs at the boarder in Sault Saint Marie. We crossed the Mackinaw Bridge and it was quite scary.

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We arrived at our lovely campground, Holiday Park, for the next 3 nights. We immediately headed out to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. We had a blast running up and down the dunes. They were very impressive! It reminded us of the dunes in Death Valley last summer.

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We made it all the way to the highest dune at 287feet.

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I thought I was going to die climbing some of the dunes. They were really steep!

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We worked on our Junior Ranger books and learned a lot about how the dunes were formed from the glaciers many many years ago. The dunes shift an average of 2.5 feet per year since they have been recording the data.

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We hiked a few short trails. They were very hard hikes in the soft deep sand.

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Trees do manage to survive in some areas even with the shifting dunes.

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There was one part on the scenic drive that was insanely steep. There were lots of footprints but no people because of the storms.

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We headed back to camp because of a bank robbery in town that closed everything down for the afternoon. The next day we did all the drives again and climbed the dunes several more times.

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We stopped in at the blacksmiths shop and watched the blacksmith make a dinner bell. We were able to buy the bell! img_3599

We earned our Junior Ranger badge and patch. We also got a cool book called “Look Around You” by a local artist for free for doing our books.

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We stopped off at the Platte River State Fish Hatchery and saw how they raised Coho Salmon for stocking the rivers and lake.

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The weir was pretty cool. They raise and lower it based on what fish is spawning.

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Our last day we went out to eat at The Cherry Hut and had way too much cherry stuff. We took Dad to the dunes and he had a fun time climbing up with us.

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