My favorite pictures of America are all in Michigan, my home state. 

The west side of Michigan is lined with tall, rolling sand dunes. They act as sirens to those of us who live on the southeast part of the state; an exciting change of texture both in the physical aspects of the land and the energy of the environment. 

We visited Silver Lake and its surrounding sand dunes recently. Silver Lake State Park is the only place you can take vehicles on the dunes and is a haven for four-wheel lovers. The inland Silver Lake sits very close to the shores of Lake Michigan which, if you've never seen it, might as well be the ocean for its size.

This is an iPhone photo from on top of a giant dune we climbed, looking down at Silver Lake. Our cabin is on the other side. 

This is me running down the other side (I couldn't help it! The climb back up was worth it.):

The boaters of Silver Lake congregate at the foot of the dunes to play in the clear, cool water and run on the powdery white sand:

Powering up those dunes in our F-150 was amazingly fun, but sometimes the sand won. Thank God for friendly people with tow straps:

This is where we relaxed at the end of the day. Idyllic: