Parking
Use the gravel Windy Moraine Trailhead lot at 8731 W Welch Road, east of M-109. No restroom or water is listed at the lot.
Overview
About Windy Moraine Trail
Why go
- A varied 1.5-mile loop mixes field, hardwood forest and a Glen Lake glimpse.
- Interpretive stops make the old orchard and changing forest worth noticing.
Heads up
- The view is a limited opening through trees, not a broad overlook.
- Short mileage still includes a steady climb and a quick descent.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Sleeping Bear Dunes map
Full mapElevation764–1,001 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 Windy Moraine 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
Windy Moraine: Woods and an Old Apple Tree0:00 / 0:26
“You're nearing the Windy Moraine trailhead on Welch Road, for a short walk through an old field and beech-maple woods.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Sleeping Bear Dunes Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Shauger Hill: Woods Instead of Lake Views
- Pierce Stocking Covered Bridge: The Porcupine Problem
- Cottonwoods Connected Under the Sand
- When the Lake Sloshes
- 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 Windy Moraine Trail
A short loop with a real climbWindy Moraine is a 1.
Windy Moraine is a 1.5-mile loop from the Welch Road trailhead, climbing through an old field and beech-maple woods to a high point above Glen Lake before dropping back down. It is a compact outing, but not a flat nature stroll: the climb is steady and the downhill comes quickly. Allow about an hour if you pause at the interpretive stops. The distance includes the short trailhead connector out and back.
The view is a glimpseAt the high point, Glen Lake appears through the treetops.
At the high point, Glen Lake appears through the treetops. Expect a tree-framed opening, not a wide-open summit panorama; descriptions differ on how much of the view is visible. If you take a photo, frame the lake in the gap between branches so the foliage shows the scale of the opening.
Start at Welch RoadPark at the gravel Windy Moraine Trailhead lot at 8731 W Welch Road, east of M-109.
Park at the gravel Windy Moraine Trailhead lot at 8731 W Welch Road, east of M-109. There is no water or restroom at the lot. The path is unpaved, with a gradual climb and a faster descent; poison ivy is noted near the forest entrance. Pets are prohibited on the trail December 1 through March 31.
Watch the field changeNear the field-and-forest edge is an old Duchess of Oldenburg apple tree, a Russian variety…
Near the field-and-forest edge is an old Duchess of Oldenburg apple tree, a Russian variety introduced to the United States in 1835. Look for sapsucker holes in its trunk. The old field is changing in stages: shrubs and raspberries give way to sun-loving poplar, birch and black cherry before shade-tolerant hardwoods take over.
The woods have their own storyOne stretch follows an old roadbed through young, crowded trees.
One stretch follows an old roadbed through young, crowded trees. The interpretive stops also point out a sugar maple that lived for at least a century, hollow beeches that can shelter porcupines, squirrels and raccoons, and cavities made by woodpeckers and reused by other birds. A red-pine plantation marks another chapter after logging. These are habitat and history clues, not guaranteed wildlife sightings.
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.
