Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Our next blogged adventure happens to be one of our absolute FAVORITE places to visit. Sleeping Bear Dunes in Glen Arbor, Michigan is Thea's mom's family's favorite place to vacation. She has lost count on the number of times she has stayed in the area, but Thea has been to stay twice now. In today's post, we will outline some of our favorite scenery, trails, dog-friendly restaurants, and other fabulous gems.

SBD (Sleeping Bear Dunes) is a longer drive than previous posts for us. Our favorite thing to do is leave during an afternoon and make it to Interlochen State Park for the night to rustic camp. The rustic camp sites sit on the edge of Green Lake. We have also stayed in the non-rustic camping side with our in-laws and their camper, which is also a nicely maintained campground. Interlochen is a neat area with some local restaurants, including our traditionally visited Bud's Restaurant. Dogs are allowed on the porch of the restaurant so we typically send one human in to order at a time. Another must-visit for us in Interlochen is the new Green Lake Disc Golf Park. We played here for the first time in September 2021 and found this course challenging and beautiful. The tall trees and low underbrush make for our preferred forest disc golfing. The 18-hole course is beautiful and free to play.

About 45 minutes from Interlochen, MI is the national lakeshore and scenic park attractions. Our first stop has typically been the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. This drive has many stops with trails at some of the stops, but the breathtaking views you witness of Lake Michigan are worth every second. The drive can become crowded if you go too late in the day, so try to plan early. Dogs are allowed in most areas, but not all. Keep an eye out for signs and park workers who will direct your doggos to be safe in dog-friendly areas!

From the drive, we like to head into Glen Arbor, a cutesy tourist town with shops and restaurants right on the edge of Lake Michigan. The drive to the town itself is cute, so keep your eyes open and enjoy the view driving over the Glen Lakes! Some of our very favorite dog-friendly stops include eating at The Cherry Republic where your fur friend can join you eating outside of the brew house. You can also taste wines and sample cherry-flavored concoctions in the buildings! Another dog-friendly restaurant is Art's Tavern where pups are free to join on the patio. Other restaurants in town may also be dog-friendly as the area is fairly dog-supportive. There are also shops which allow dogs, we have found if we ask. Don't forget to enjoy a nice evening on the deck at Glen Arbor Wines where you can sample some tasty wines around the fire and play some backyard games with your travel friends.

As far as staying in Glen Arbor, we previously stayed where Thea's grandpawrents rented a vacation home; the home didn't allow dogs inside, so we camped in the backyard which turned out to be very lovely. On other trips, we drove back to Interlochen to camp there for the night with our sweetie pup. There are options closer to SBD, but these were the solutions that worked best for us.

Another adventure your dog pal may be up for is the Sleeping Bear Dunes Heritage Trail. This paved path leads from Glen Arbor to Empire which allows for a lot of beautiful scenery. We biked this path from the Dune Climb where we parked (doggos are not allowed on the Dune Climb sadly) and we took the path to Glen Haven, where a beach, old cannery, general store, and coast guard museum are accessible (not all accessible to doggos, though). We biked this trail and have transitioned a child bike trailer into a safe spot for Thea to ride in. Thea gets seatbelted in to make sure she doesn't jump out and get hurt. The beach is beautiful here and is also a neat place for stargazing. We once saw hints of the northern lights on this beach, which was phenomenal and quite a tease!

To the northeast about 30 minutes lies Traverse City, a bustling town with shops, restaurants, and activities galore. Thea was *really* excited here because there were so many people and dogs, and she unfortunately tripped her mama on the concrete and caused quite a scene (LOL). Make sure your doggo feels confident and comfortable surrounded by others so you don't make our same mistakes! We wandered down to Clinch Park in the city where Thea interacted with some other dogs, swam (begrudgingly), and we could play fun games by the water with smoothies from a food stand. There is also a disc golf shop we visit for Thea's dad (Tilly's Party Store & Disc Golf) and some local courses you can check out. We disc golfed a course named Myles Kimmerly (where Thea's dog instincts came to life and she caught a chipmunk meanwhile giving her mama a panic attack - bless Thea's heart).

A trail in the area we LOVED was the Empire Bluff Trail. This trail was dog-friendly, not terribly difficult, and led to jaw-dropping views. We parked in Empire and walked to the trailhead which added to our trekking experience and also allowed us to stop for some of our favorite ice cream at Tiffany's Cafe in Empire on the way back to our vehicle.

Some beaches we found to be especially lovely with dog family were Esch Beach (pictured) and Bohemian Beach. We tried kayaking at Bohemian on a pretty choppy day, so Thea's mom got to kayak but we didn't risk taking Thea out in case the kayak flipped. Thea's dad stayed with her at the shore. :)

We have made it to SBD twice as a fur family - once in June 2021 and again in September 2021; both times were with the grandpawrents and full of family time. We found lots of ways to bond as dog and parents while enjoying beautiful scenery, new adventures, tasty eats, and relaxing experiences. We will certainly be trekking back to the area to adventure even further and look forward to sharing the magic of Michigan with others.

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Other honorable mentions of business/places we enjoyed:

Moomers Homemade Ice Cream (located on the farm with their dairy cows)

Empire Village Inn Restaurant (tasty food with picnic tables outside to enjoy with fur pals)

Sleeping Bear Point Hiking Trail (closed to pets April 15-August 15 to protect the trail, we went in September; it has beautiful views of the lake and dunes)