Silver Lake, Blue Water | Silver Lake Sand Dunes

Never give up on summer! It may be after labor day, but I wanted to take advantage of the nice weather so I booked a couple of nights on Silver Lake so my boyfriend could experience the sand dues on the west side of Michigan. He was in town recruiting for his company so it was fun to surprise him- he's always planning sweet surprises for me!



Silver Lake is a resort town- during the summer, it's always crazy busy and difficult to find a room or cabin nearby to rent unless you plan way ahead! Since it was after Labor Day, many of the restaurants and smaller beach shops were closed, but it gave us a chance to sneak up to Pentwater (MI) for some nicer dinners. We stayed at the Dunes Waterfront Resort- it wasn't exactly a Hilton, but it was on the water, had a great view of the dunes, and had an awesome dock where we got to see the some swans at night!

Silver Lake draws a lot of people every summer because it's home to Silver Lake State Park with 3000 acres of sand dunes- 450 acres of dunes are set aside for off road vehicles. Lake Michigan sits on the other side of the dunes. I'd visited Silver Lake several times before to come to the lake, tube, and sunbathe (in fact, my brother was married here!), but I'd never actually driven on the dunes, so this was the perfect chance.

Taking to the sand dunes like a boss

There a a few buggy and jeep rental places throughout town. There is also a dune ride place that takes a tamer route outside of the ATV area. During the season people bring their own ATVs. It's somewhat expensive to rent a vehicle to drive on the dunes. We paid $250 for two hours, which included a driving lesson with a guide and a bunch of info about the dunes. The lesson was SUPER helpful! Initially I didn't think we needed it, but when we got out there I realized we would've been in way over our heads without it. The guide told us what to avoid, how to do certain maneuvers, and how not to beat up on the vehicles. The lessons are setup so you go out in a convoy of cars and your guide instructs you through a radio.

Thankfully, the Jeeps are also Automatic because I have still made it this far in life without learning stick shift.

I was glad we rented something instead of trying to drive my SUV because sand ends up EVERYWHERE. It's also a good idea to either pony up for a lesson or ride because most regular SUVs just aren't built for the kind of steep driving and bouncing that happens on this terrain. The Michigan DNR (Department of Natural Resources) also patrols the dunes and you can get fined for not following the rules.

Driving on massive sand dunes like this takes some balls. You absolutely cannot chicken out and have to punch on the gas or else you will get stuck and possibly put yourself in danger. Be prepared to be in a vehicle that does a lot of leaning and tipping during your trip. If you can't handle that, do a much tamer dune ride at the edge of town and let someone else handle the driving.


We switched drivers so both of us could get some time, except *cough* one of us chickened out so I got to drive most of the time because I'm a kickass driver. Coming in the off-season when the weather is slightly cooler worked out to our advantage because the dunes aren't as busy as peak summer. We got lucky with a slightly breezy, sunny day. After we turned in the keys to our ride we had plenty of time to head back to our hotel and get some more sunbathing in before catching an amazing sunset over Lake Michigan.