Exploring Sleeping Bear Dunes by Foot & Cycle

Sleeping Bear Dunes offered us so many adventures while in Michigan, and we loved our time in the area. We hiked the 2.5km out and back trail, The Empire Bluff, to get the epic views over Lake Michigan and Sleeping Bear Dunes. What a WOW moment before driving the Pierce Stocking Scenic Loop and stopping at each of the viewpoints along the 12km drive. The best stop to just sit and watch people tackle the 450 feet dune drop to Lake Michigan is Overlook 9.
We got up early to get a view of Glen Lake from the Dune Climb and to also hike through the dunes all the way to Lake Michigan before cycling the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, from Empire to Glen Arbor.
We are loving our time at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and hanging out in the State of Michigan.
*overnight parking resources we use:
Harvest Host
i-overlander
🎶 Music: www.epidemicsound.com
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🌟 About Us: 🇳🇿
We are Brett and Rachelle, a New Zealand couple that jumped at a job offer to work in the USA for 3 months in 2020. We fell in love with the country and the people, so we kept extending our contract. Fast forward to 2023, we purchased a Dodge Ram Promaster to keep adventuring around the USA together. We lovingly named our van Jon VaN Jovi ❤️ We are cycling & hiking our way around the USA. Consider subscribing to our channel so you can follow us in our adventures. We look forward to reading your comments & maybe even answering some questions we have at times ❤️🇳🇿❤️🇺🇸

[@deadbol8090]

So pretty

[@gromit0237]

A great lakes state of mind,...

[@tinawimberley5035]

I'm going in October. Were you able to use your America the Beautiful pass to get into the state parks as well?

[@BrettandRach]

Hi there. No, none of the State Parks we did, excepted America the Beautiful. Sleeping Bear Dunes being a N.P of course does. And that does include the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive & Empire Bluff Trail as they are within the N.P.
One State Park Entry Fee does give you multiple State Park Entries for that day.. keep that in mind for your planning. Hope that helps

[@ericburton5163]

So if you are planning on visiting multiple Michigan state parks / visiting state parks for multiple days, you can get a non-resident annual recreation passport. It's just important to note that it is tied to the vehicle registration and not the person. So you can get it for a rental car, but it's going to be tied to that the rental car (you couldn't transfer it to another car if you switched cars for whatever reason). It's $40 for non residents (vs. $11 for a day pass). So if you visit state parks for at least 4 days you have saved money getting the pass. But it only works for Michigan state parks not for other states. Just google Michigan recreation passport. As a resident, I can't say exactly how it works because we can do it when we register our car but looks like you can do it online.

[@markofthenorth8918]

Awesome channel great video keep them up make sure you like and subscribe thank you for your support