Ghost Forest, photo by Charles Bohnam
The Silver Lake State Park page at Michigan Trail Maps says in part:
Not all of Michigan’s great hikes are trails. This trek is a journey through Silver Lake State Park’s trailless backcountry, a mile-wide strip of dunes between Silver Lake and Lake Michigan. There’s not another hike like this in Michigan or even the Midwest because no other stretch of dunes are so barren.
Perched on a plateau and rising more than 100 feet high above Silver Lake, the heart of these dunes are totally devoid of any vegetation, even dune grass. The only thing besides sand are the stumps and trunks of ghost forests, ancient trees that the migrating dunes had buried and killed. Almost half of the hike is in this Sahara Desert-like terrain, the other half is spent strolling a stretch of Lake Michigan that is free of cottages and frozen custard stands.
A rare hike indeed.
View Charles’ photo background bigilicious and see more in his slideshow.
More dunes and more summer wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures.
Beautiful!
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Rare for the midwest.
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I have photos of a similar scene in the Pictured Rocks National Park close to Grand Marais?
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There are some ghost forests in the Grand Sable Dunes near Grand Marais, part of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
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