Green Point Dunes Trail – June 21, 2014
Green Point Dunes Preserve is located just off from M-22 between the small towns of Elberta and Arcadia. The short hiking trail that leads through nice hardwood forest to a sandy beach makes for a perfect family outing. We went for a morning hike here while we were camping at the Betsie River Campsite.
The sign at the trailhead.
Green Point Dunes Preserve protects 242 acres on Lake Michigan about 2 miles south of Elberta, MI. The trail is a lollipop loop that is a little under 2 miles long which makes for a perfect family hike.
Checking the map at the start of the loop portion of the hike. We decided to walk in the clockwise direction.
There is a small gravel road cutting through the preserve that goes to a small piece of private property with a cottage that you will see by the stairs to the beach. The photo above shows the trail heading out toward the beach just after crossing the road.
Heading down the stairs to the beach.
The Green Point Dune Preserve beach looking north. We took a short break on the beach and watched the fog coming in off from Lake Michigan again.
After the beach access the trail makes a steady climb for about 0.2 miles up the dune ridge along Lake Michigan.
The trail tops out at a nice overlook with a small deck and bench.
From the overlook you can see the remains of a shipwreck just off the shore. The sign above tells about the interesting history of this boat. Next time we will have to hike in with our goggles and life jackets and try to swim out and get a close up look at it.
Click here to view this sign larger >>
Just a little further down the trail there is another overlook deck, but the view was partially hidden by the fog again.
A video of images from our GoPro camera taken every 60 seconds on the hike. Many of the images in the low light sections of the hike were blurry. I deleted the really bad ones, but left several others in to help show the hike.
Our track in Google Maps. It took our family about 1.5 hours to complete this hike, going a leisurely pace.
For more information and a trail map visit the Green Point Dunes Page >>
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Best Hikes with Children in Michigan
With 3 small children this has become one of our favorite hiking guides. This is really a good book for anyone looking to get out and find short, but interesting hikes all over the state. Like all of the books written by Mr. DuFresne there are well written trail descriptions and nice maps of each outing.
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