Nature Trail

The Nature Trail at Warren Dunes loops through the diverse ecological communities that develop in the lee of the primary dune line, revealing the surprising complexity that exists just steps from one of southwest Michigan's most popular beaches. The trail begins in the campground area and climbs onto the secondary dune ridge, where black oak savanna with widely spaced trees and an open understory of blueberry, bracken fern, and sand cherry creates a xeric grassland community found nowhere else in the Midwest at this scale. In the shallow swales between dune ridges the trail passes through interdunal wetlands where skunk cabbage, blue flag iris, and cattail grow in standing water, attracting dragonflies and spring peepers in extraordinary numbers during May. Whip-poor-wills breed in the oak scrub sections and their repetitive nocturnal call creates a memorable nighttime soundscape for campers. The trail also passes through an older dune forest where black cherry, sassafras, and red maple have colonized stabilized sand, their roots gripping the substrate at unlikely angles. In late July and August the blueberry patches along the sandy ridge sections produce heavy crops of small, intensely flavored wild berries that reward slow walkers willing to pick as they go.