Beach and Dune Walk

The Beach and Dune Walk traces Warren Dunes' Lake Michigan shoreline from the main beach access south toward the park boundary and back, combining the sensory pleasures of a Great Lakes beach walk with close views of the wind-sculpted dune faces that drop directly to the water's edge along much of this stretch. The broad sand beach alternates between sections of firm wet sand near the water, where walking is easy and the wave action etches ripple patterns in the lake-bottom sediment, and the loose dry sand of the upper beach where footsteps sink and children instinctively dig. The primary dune faces rise steeply from the back of the beach, their flanks vegetated with marram grass and cottonwood in various stages of colonization. At several points the dune face has been undercut by wave erosion during high-water years, exposing the internal cross-bedding structure of the dune sands as a geological cross-section. Lake Michigan's color shifts dramatically with sky conditions, ranging from Caribbean turquoise to gunmetal gray within the span of an afternoon. Mew gulls, herring gulls, and occasionally Caspian terns work the surf line throughout the season, while migrating shorebirds congregate on the upper beach in August and September. The walk can be extended or shortened easily by simply turning around at any point.