Silver Lake State Park

We were able to camp with my cousin, his family, and friends over Memorial Day weekend. They are avid off-road vehicle (ORV) fans. My cousin had towed a cargo trailer. Vehicles just kept coming out as he unloaded - Jeep wrangler, dirt bike, 4-wheeler, golf cart, and bicycles.

Silver Lake State Park includes the only sand dunes east of the Mississippi River on which you can ride ORVs. Two days of blasting up and down the dunes along with hundreds, if not thousands, of other ORVs was quite the experience. Ok, after one trip, Harold and I decided that riding the dunes was pretty much a younger person's game.We enjoyed watching the spectacle before us. I kind of wondered if heating pads and ibuprofen sales in the area were disproportionately higher.

At the really, really nice RV resort that my cousin dubs as his favorite, Silver Creek RV Resort, the temperatures would be only a degree or two higher. However, the dunes felt much cooler. The winds coming in from Lake Michigan and the higher ground were very effective in cooling things off.  I wore a sweatshirt and was glad I did.

We did find a place where no ORVs were allowed and flew kites for a little bit. The winds were pretty gusty though. Below is a photo of family members enjoying a few minutes together. Unfortunately, I did not get a good picture of the volume of ORVs that would be much more representative of the park.