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Nordouse Dunes Wilderness
Area
by Ken McIlquham
Nordhouse Dunes is a very
unique hiking opportunity in Michigan. Located
on the west side of the state (just north of
Ludington), the rolling dunes and shore of Lake
Michigan offer a very relaxing hike. It is
often recommended as a good place to bring a person
who is newly interested in hiking and backpacking.
So for a weekend in September, I brought my wife
Lisa and dog Neala for an overnight trip.
There are two main points
to make regarding Nordhouse dunes. The first
is that it isn't very big. This bodes well for
bringing new hikers as you're never that far from
your car. The second point is that since the
wilderness area is not very big, people have taken
upon themselves to jump off of the designated trails
and into the wilderness. The result is a series of
trails that sometimes lead to the same place, and
other times result in aimless wandering. A
compass and a map are almost a necessity in my
opinion. Also worth noting is that the dunes
are reported to become very busy in the warm summer
months. On our trip, we encountered quite a
few people, but not enough to make me feel crowded.
 We
started our hike around noon. The trail to
Lake Michigan was an easy walk, however, we did end
up on an offshoot trail that had us scurry up a
hill. The ground quickly turns from dirt to
loose sand. The difference in effort required
to walk on sand is very noticeable. In very short time, we had arrived
at the shores of Lake Michigan. I had intended
 to do some hiking around the area, but once we
arrived at the lake it was too hard to leave.
We both waded into the chilly water to cool off.
Since the park regulations forbid camping directly
on the beach, we set our tent up just over the dune
near the tree line. The remainder of the
afternoon was spent lounging in the soft sand of the
beach. Once dinner was served, a fine Mountain
house Italian dish if I recall, we watched the
setting sky and headed for our tent.
The following morning, I
heard
a rustling in the tree next to our camp. I
popped my head out of the tent to witness the
morning activity of at least half a dozen wild
turkeys. They later walked about five yards
away from our tent before disappearing over the
dunes and into the woods. My poor dog didn't
quite know what to do. She was locked on
point. She didn't make a sound or move a
muscle, but she probably wanted to tear through the
tent after them.
Once we woke up and had
breakfast, we proceeded down the shore to explore
the wilderness. Again the trails are very
non-technical. They are
 relatively
flat and well traveled. There's just a lot of
them. You can view a map of the area
here.
However, I would not use it for your navigation as I
did. There are maps at the registration sign
in the parking lot that are better. We ended
up getting turned around on a side trail that I
blame on the bad print out that I had. That's
my story, and I'm sticking to it. Again, since
the wilderness area is relatively small, it's hard
to get "lost". We made it onto a trail that
headed back to the parking lot. After
wandering through the woods for quite some time, we
ended up back at the parking lot to our car and the
drive back home.
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