MICHIGAN

There are so many great places to hike in Michigan your dog probably won’t even notice the great places they can’t go - Isle Royale National Park, the trails at Pictured Rocks National Seashore, the Dune Climb at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore (the powers that be may be doing your dog a favor here). Nowhere in Michigan are you ever more than 85 miles from the shore of one of four Great Lakes but that doesn’t mean your dog is that close to a romp on the sand. Most of the 3,200 miles of shoreline is not open to your dog but with places like the Lake Michigan Sand Dunes on the Upper Peninsula and the Lake Michigan Recreation Area and some Sleeping Bear beaches all is not lost. In 2011 Good Morning America declared Sleeping Bear Dunes the "Most Beautiful Place in America." When your dog sees the forested dunes, some 480 feet high, and the lakes and the sunsets they will wonder a vote was ever needed. Grand Island, the largest island in south Lake Superior and Mackinac Island in Lake Huron are both tail-friendly. With 65,000 inlands lakes and ponds any water-loving dog will never want for a swim in the Wolverine State. On the UP the Porcupine Mountains are one of the most expansive undisturbed wilderness areas remaining in the Midwest with 90 miles of tail-friendly trails. If that isn’t enough to sate your trail dog there is always the North Country National Scenic Trail that will be America’s longest trail system - twice as long as the Appalachian Trail - when finished. More than 1,100 miles is in Michigan, traversing everything from farm land to rugged Lake Superior woodlands.

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)