Hiking in Grand Mere State Park and Dinner in St Joseph, MI – October 21, 2017
It was likely going to be the last nice warm weather of the 2017 season. The forecast for Saturday was for partly cloudy skies and temperatures up into the mid-70s. Sunday is usually our family hiking day in the fall, but rain was on the way. We pulled up the map and looked for somewhere within an hour or less from our house that we had not been before. We decided to head south to Grand Mere State Park.
Grand Mere is an undeveloped State Park near Stevensville, about 20 miles north of the Michigan / Indiana border. The park is known for it’s sand dunes and 1 mile of Lake Michigan beach. Unlike most State Parks in this part of the State there are very few amenities here. Even the entrance road and parking area are gravel. Off the west end of the parking you will find the trailhead and a couple of vault toilets. There is also a covered picnic shelter just down the trail.
Directions to Grand Mere State Park >>
The Michigan DNR map of Grand Mere State Park.
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Just a little ways down the path you pass the the picnic area.
The paved path continues in a southwest direction and along the way there are some partially obstructed views of South Grand Mere Lake.
The path starts to get a little more overgrown after the first 0.25 mile.
At the end of the paved path the trail turns to soft sand and splits. We took the left split here and stayed lower along the shore of the Lake. Going right takes you on a more direct route to the beach through an open dune area.
In about another 0.25 mile or 0.75 miles into the hike we came to another split in the trail. This time we climbed up and to the right toward the Baldtop Dune.
Continuing up through the dune grass we got a nice view of South Grand Mere Lake behind us.
Soon you will see a sandy trail heading straight to the top of the Baldtop Dune. If you are up for a challenge take a right turn here and start climbing. If you continue straight the trail skirts along the base of the dune and out towards Lake Michigan.
The view near the top looking east.
Baldtop is about a 150 feet above Lake Michigan.
Running down the front face of the dune. You can see where the other trail connects back at the bottom.
After conquering the dune climb we took a little break on the beach.
The hiking route follows the beach north for the next 0.5 mile before looping back. The trails are not marked and we accidentally took the first opening that we saw heading up from the beach. Looking at our GPS track we soon realized that we were on the middle trail and had to backtrack to the beach.
The correct trail was just a little further up the beach.
The trail climbed over a couple hills in an open dune area.
At the bottom of the next valley there were trails that split off in several directions. We took the right trail up into the trees. It looked like they all ended up in about the same place.
Once into the forest we continued on easy climb.
The trail continued just in the trees along the edge of a ridge. There were several other trails splitting off in both diretions, but we continued straight towards Middle Grand Mere Lake.
As we dropped down off the ridge we found a well worn path at the bottom heading back east toward the trailhead.
For more on this hike pick up a copy of:Explorer’s Guide 50 Hikes in Michigan: Sixty Walks, Day Trips, and Backpacks in the Lower Peninsula
Our Favorites:
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.
Find the Best Hikes with Children in Michigan on Amazon >>
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