The Treat Farm Trail is not one of the highly publicized trails in Sleeping Bear Dunes, but one of my favorites. The link above takes you to the SBD site describing the trail.
At the trail head, there is another farm that is always very neat and tidy. Here are some of the barns and out-buildings.
After walking 0.7 mile or so through the woods you come upon the Treat Farm. The farm house and several out-buildings are still there.
The farm house has undergone some repairs in the last couple years.
This is a view of the kitchen through one of the windows.
The unpainted portion of the house contains the cistern. Rain water was collected from the roof and diverted to the cistern to supply all the water for the farm.
The front porch looks down to the barn and other out-buildings.
The house from the bottom of the hill.
Here we see the root cellar and a concrete-domes garage.
This is the wooden door to the barn.
From the barn it is just over half a mile to the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan, following a trail through the meadows. There were numerous wildflowers to enjoy.
Once we got to the top of the bluff we had a spectacular view of the lake and shore line to the north and south.
We saw Monarch Butterflies, both as a butterfly and as the caterpillar eating milkweed.
The Treat Farm Tail is worth checking out the next time you are near Empire. It is usually not crowded and the view at the end of the trail is spectacular.
Mark
