The Best Day Hike You Can Take With Your Dog In Michigan

Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness Trails
Huron-Manistee National Forests • Manistee

The Nordhouse Dunes is the only federally designated wilderness area in Michigan’s lower peninsula. Despite the name, the trail system here is easily accessed from the paved road into the Lake Michigan Recreation Area.

The protected area is a patchwork quilt of windblown dunes (some as high as 140 feet tall), conifer forests of juniper and jack pine, and a slice of the largest area of freshwater interdunal ponds in the world. Nordhouse Dunes is relatively small but like any true wilderness it is minimally signed. There are about ten miles of trails, including logging cuts and jeep roads that are indistinguishable from footpaths so come armed with a trail map.

One tail-wagging route to try with Seaman is to Nordhouse Lake where the shallow waters will tempt even water-averse dogs in for a swim. Regardless of where you choose to explore in the wilderness area you will close your canine hiking loop with a trot down one of the prettiest stretches of pristine beach in the Great Lakes region.

The undeveloped dunesland alternates between low, rolling sand piles covered in grasses and the rare Pitcher’s Thistle to large wind-sculpted dunes. The beach trail shifts from narrow to wide as Seaman races along, the blue waters of Lake Michigan to one side and the deep green curtain of the national forest to the other.

HIKING TIME: 3-4 hours

(from the book 300 Day Hikes To Take With Your Dog Before He Tires You Out: Trails where you won’t be able to wipe the wag off your dog’s tail)

Hiking With Your Dog Michigan