Last week, I blogged about one of my favorite coastal areas in the United States, Padre Island National Seashore.  Today, we travel 1,400 miles to the northeast, from the hot, semi-arid coast of South Texas, to the humid,  cool, often frigid shore of Lake Michigan, in the northwestern part of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. 

As the glaciers melted during the end of the last ice age more than 10,000 years ago, they left great depressions on the earth's surface that quickly filled with the melting glacial water.  Thus were born the Great Lakes of North America.  Along the eastern shore of what became Lake Michigan, great moraines were left behind by the retreating ice sheets.  A moraine is made of rocks and other debris that collect between two ice sheets.  When the ice melts, the debris forms a rocky, elongated hill.  The northern Lake Michigan moraine was constantly pounded by the waves that formed as a result of the prevailing westerly winds.  The constant wave action against the moraine caused the rocky ground to erode into sand that was suspended in the water.  The fine sand would eventually be deposited along the west side of the moraine, and over time the westerly winds would push the sand higher and higher up its side.  After a few thousands of years, the sand-covered moraines became what we know today as the Sleeping Bear Dunes. 

In 1970, much of this unique landscape was purchased by the federal government to create the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  The national park property includes spectacular beaches, the Manitou Islands, crystal clear Lake Michigan water, and northern boreal forests just a few hundred yards inland.

Welcome to the Sleeping Bear Dunes of Northwestern Lower Michigan.

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As you approach the shoreline, the forests give way to scrubby brush and grasses, allowing you to catch a glimpse of the fog-shrouded lake far off in the distance.

If you wish to descend down the dune to the water, make sure you are up to the task...

 ...because what goes down must eventually climb back up!

Most visitors seem content to remain on top of the dune to watch the procession of the brave and foolish hike down, only to make the difficult return a short while later.

But for those who do choose to hike down, the watery reward is often worth the effort...

 ...that is, as long as you don't mind a little cold water!