Parking
Park roadside at the locked gate by Tweddle Farm, near the northwest corner where Norconk Road turns south. Enter on foot; the gate is for vehicles.
Overview
About Treat Farm Trail
Why go
- A short forest walk ends at a memorable historic farmstead.
- The restored barn and round concrete garage make the turnaround distinctive.
Heads up
- One sustained incline feels steeper than the short mileage suggests.
- The safe route ends at the farm buildings, not the bluff-side viewpoint described elsewhere.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Sleeping Bear Dunes map
Full mapElevation764–840 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
2 active Sleeping Bear Dunes alerts
- ClosureManitou Islands closed during dock constructionNorth and South Manitou Islands have major access and facility closures during dock construction; the passenger ferry will not operate in 2026.Official details
- CautionHunters may be present during fall seasonsHunters may be present in Sleeping Bear Dunes while fall hunting seasons overlap with visitor use. - Several Michigan hunting seasons overlap and begin in mid-September.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Sleeping Bear Dunes Tour Guide
Your drive to Treat Farm Trail, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Sleeping Bear Dunes audio tourRecorded for this trailhead
Treat Farm: A Barn Moved Piece by Piece0:00 / 0:32
“You're nearing the access to Treat Farm, a walk-in stop from the gate on Norconk Road. Allow about an hour for the one-point-two-mile round trip and a look around, with a climb through the woods.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Sleeping Bear Dunes Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Empire Bluff: A Wooded Walk to the Lake
- Philip A. Hart Visitor Center: Get Your Bearings
- The Salamander with No Lungs
- Esch Beach: Otter Creek and Traces of Aral
- 73 audio storiesacross Sleeping Bear Dunes’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Piping Plover, Bald Eagle, White-tailed Deer, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 34 trails, 89 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Treat Farm Trail
A short walk to the Treat farmTreat Farm Trail is a 1.
Treat Farm Trail is a 1.2-mile out-and-back from the Norconk Road gate to Charles and Martha Treat’s historic farmstead. Follow the broad old road about 0.6 mile each way through the woods, then leave time to look around the buildings; an hour is a reasonable visit. It is an easy history walk with one noticeable incline. Turn around at the farmstead: the National Park Service warns that the shoreline bluff just west is unstable and prone to landslides.
The old farm roadThe route follows a wide former road through maple-beech woods.
The route follows a wide former road through maple-beech woods. The walking is straightforward for most of the way, with one longer climb that can feel steeper than the short mileage suggests. Spring is a good time for the wildflowers the park calls out here, and the woods take on fall color later in the year. Some visitors report poison ivy along the route, so stay on the clear path through the vegetation.
A farm moved piece by pieceCharles and Martha Treat bought 220 acres, including buildings already built by the Tweddle…
Charles and Martha Treat bought 220 acres, including buildings already built by the Tweddle family, in 1912. The barn has a story of its own: Charles bought it near Detroit, had every piece numbered before taking it apart, then shipped and rebuilt it on a concrete foundation at the farm. The park restored the barn in 2004. Its steep roof and tall, planked walls make it easy to spot when the woods open.
Treat’s concrete experimentsCharles Treat was a farmer and an engineer.
Charles Treat was a farmer and an engineer. Alongside the timber barn and farmhouse are a root cellar built into a hill and a round garage made from reinforced concrete. He poured the garage walls a bucket of concrete at a time, then reinforced its thin roof with a hand-set spiral of steel bar. The barn and circular garage together are the most distinctive farmyard view.
Where to turn aroundThe short public walk ends at the farm buildings.
The short public walk ends at the farm buildings. Do not continue west beyond them toward the shoreline bluff; the park warns that this slope is unstable. The mapped route stops at the farmstead for that reason, even though some descriptions continue to a bluff-side viewpoint. There are no visitor facilities at the farm, so plan your stop around the buildings and the woods walk itself.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Sleeping Bear Dunes
27 sightingsPiping PloverMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
70 sightingsBald EagleMost seen around 10 AMSighting map
56 sightingsWhite-tailed DeerMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
68 sightingsSandhill CraneMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
58 sightingsPorcupineMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
31 sightingsLoonMost seen around 5 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Sleeping Bear Dunes. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
