This week’s adventure takes us to Arcadia Dunes on the west side of the state, just south of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Unlike Sleeping Bear, Arcadia Dunes is free to hike, and there is even mountain biking in the area.
We started our adventure the day before and spent the night at Orchard Beach State Park. It is a cute little state park along Lake Michigan, not far from the casino. It is sort of deceiving; there is no beach. There were once steps that took you down to Lake Michigan, but they washed away when the lake was at record levels last time around. So, if you are looking for a beach, no dice.
But if you are looking for somewhere to stay the night, it was a nice campground with electric-only sites. They have water and a dump station at the entrance area. The views from the top of the bluffs are beautiful, especially at sunset.
The campground was not too far from Arcadia, and we found a really cool overlook with stairs for an even better view along the way up 115. Just a note, the stairs are the metal grate type. Our dogs did okay, but if you have a small dog, they may not want to walk up them.
We passed the town of Arcadia along our way to get to the Arcadia Dunes. There is a fair amount of hiking in the area.
There are three parking lots to choose from:
The first takes you to multiple places, but it has a section for handicapped people with a short, wide trail for wheelchair access.
The second one is in the middle, just a short way up the road and around the corner. This one, they say, is for overflow parking, but it’s great if you’re like us and have some people who like to hike, and some people who want to mountain bike. The Old Baldy Dune Trail can be made into about a 4-mile loop trail, most of which is through the woods. So from this parking lot, you get to do the whole Old Baldy Trail. And across the road is even more trail that is mountain bike-friendly; my son did about an 8-mile loop on the other side of the road.
The third parking lot is further up the road still and accesses the Old Baldy Trail System through connecting
So, we hiked with the dogs. Oh yeah, these trails are dog-friendly, unlike most of Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, so that is super cool. While we hiked, my son mountain biked, so it was awesome that we could do both on the same system of trails in the C.S. Mott Preserve.
We hiked about a total of 4 miles, it was a warm day, so we enjoyed the shade of the trees. We found the trail easily that takes you out to Old Baldy. Note: that section of the trail is no mountain bikes. It is a nice, very sandy hike out to the edge of Lake Michigan, and they have a sign that says it is a 20 to 30 ft drop to the water. I think that should have been in meters because it looks like it is at least 100 ft down. You don’t want to go down there; you probably will never make it back up.
The rest of the hike is relatively flat and enjoyable wooded hiking. This trail connects with the handicapped trail, where they have a nice viewing area. We took photos and hung out. Unfortunately, it was a clear day, so all my lake pictures have a haze in the distance.
After our hike, we hung out and had lunch, it was a great half day adventure. We had fun here and would definitely come back.
Here is a Link to the C.S. Mott Preserve site if you want to check it out:
and here is the link from all-trails:
https://www.alltrails.com/parks/us/michigan/arcadia-dunes-cs-mott-nature-preserve
Rapscallion Adventures 
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