Silver Lake Sand Dunes & Mac Wood's Dune Rides Guide

Silver Lake State Park has the only public dune you can legally drive your own off-road vehicle on east of the Mississippi — 450 acres of open, wind-sculpted sand wedged between Silver Lake and Lake Michigan where jeeps, dune buggies, and quads crest the ridges all summer. If you don’t have a rig, Mac Wood’s Dune Rides has run the same seven-mile, 40-minute tour since 1930, hauling passengers up and over the sand in open buggies with a driver who’s done it 10,000 times. It’s the loudest, most carnival end of Michigan’s dune country — a total contrast to the reverent hush of Sleeping Bear an hour north. Don’t be the one who wanders onto the ORV scramble area on foot; it’s an active vehicle zone and it’s genuinely dangerous.