A sturdy breeze brought welcome relief from the heat.
The high sand dunes are some of the most rugged and beautiful natural features along the shoreline of Lake Michigan. Sand dunes in the Great Lakes region comprise the most extensive freshwater dunes in the world, so enormous that they can bee seen from space.
At Warren Dunes we ascended 200 feet to the top of one of the sand dunes (above). The shifting sand and blasting sun made the hike more difficult. On our way up, we found a few rare Pitcher's Thistle plants, a federally threatend species endemic to the Great Lakes region (now extinct in Illinois except for a few reintroductions). It was awesome to see these rare plants!
In Indiana and Michigan we hiked through oak-hickory woods. At Indiana Dunes we walked through a virtual shrub forest of ripe wild blueberries. Small but flavor-packed fruit! Eventually we made our way to the shore.
It was so much cooler by the lake. What a beautiful, peaceful day!
No comments:
Post a Comment