Like this:

Sounds like an ominous place right?  No its not the newest Brewery/Restaurant on the Middle Coast.  For me its a place that I will frequent for the rest of my days on the Middle Coast.  You see, Black Zombie Canyon is the “special” place that my sons named on a recent exploration of Warren Dunes State Park.

I have been up on the Middle Coast the last few days in attempt to talk to builders for our renovation project to our house.  Unfortunately my wife could not make it up, so I decided to take my 2 sons (4 and 6) with me, to extend their spring break.

In between meetings with builders, I made it a point to get out and spend some quality time with them.  We have our share of quality time, but with just the boys, its something that is rare (not a bad thing by the way).  I am sure every father feels this way, but when it is just you and your boys, you kind of relive your boyhood a bit (albeit much more responsibly).  Not only am I giving my boys one on one time with me, but I am also getting a chance to reset my own batteries and right my own ship.  And that is a good feeling.

Anyways, for the whole time we have been going to Warren Dunes State Park, we have never been to the north side of the beach.  Unless you know your state parks or are from southwest Michigan, you would never know that the state park extends north up the coast until it butts up against Bridgman’s public beach.  So there is probably another mile (at least) of beach that is pretty much uninhabited (i.e. no one has a house or beach rights, or a convenient parking lot).

So on our first unofficial beach visit to WDSP yesterday, we were walking along the water line north towards the last beach hut.  It had warmed up and the wind was blowing off the lake, so the fog that was sitting stagnant started to roll up into the dunes.  Very cool scene.

I kept telling the boys that once you went past the final sign that stuck in the beach near the last WDSP beach hut, it was considered the forbidden beach.  Of course that made them want to go past it.  And of course I knew that it would intrigue them.

After walking another 1/2 mile, I offered up the idea to venture over the bluff and see what was back off the beach.  I had no idea what was there, and they were up for the challenge, so I followed along.  The heat and sun were starting to kick up and keeping everyone warm so I knew we had some more time before someone was going to get tired or start complaining of being cold.

As we got over the bluff, we happened upon a valley between 2 dunes, with absolutely no signs of life.  And the dune was large enough that it was going to turn into a sizeable hike if we decided to tackle it.  I asked the boys if they wanted to do it.  I got a look from both like I was stupid for even thinking about turning back at this point.

We traversed back and forth, picked our attack line and moved.  It was surreal.  There was no one around.  I thought for a moment back to when I was a kid and playing Cowboys, or Star Wars. To have a backdrop like this, and walking through a valley, where anyone that was a bad guy (or the Sand people, depending on your taste for make believe) had you in their lair.  The battle was to begin…anyways.

As we trekked up the dune, I kept telling the boys that there were no footprints except for animals and that we were the first to find this dune and that we should name it.  After 15 minutes of iterations, we came up with Black Zombie Canyon.  Don’t ask why we named it that. If you are asking that question after reading this, you have missed the point of this story.

For about 2 hours on a fresh spring morning, there were only 2  people in my entire world that mattered to me, and I couldn’t have been happier.  For 2 hours I was showing what my childhood was like.  No video games, no TV, no texting.  Just making up stuff as we hiked higher, asking stupid questions like “who’s your favorite hockey team”.  And for 2 hours I got a glimpse of the character of a generation that is going to have it so much harder than we ever did, and came away confident that they will be fine.  They just need to have the space that we had to cultivate their imagination, instead of deciding which color their avatar was going to be (video game reference).

These moments will get less and less as they grow older. And in time my kids will be doing more with their friends and significant others.  But when I get these opportunities, I want to make sure they remember these moments at physical points that won’t change in their lifetime (and a cool name helps.  They will likely forget for a period of time of this adventure, but it will come back at some point, and when it does, we will be close enough to visit it while it is still fresh in our heads.  For me, I will never forget.

As we made our way home, the boys were very proud of their new discovery, as was.  The closer we got to home, I said to them, “you know, when you get to be my age, you guys will be able to come back with your kids and show them Black Zombie Canyon”.  They came up with 1 question: “Will you be there with us”?

Of course…

Technorati Tags: Harbor Country Warren Dunes State Park Middle Coast New Buffalo Sawyer Union Pier Harbert Daytrips Michigan Dunes Michigan State Parks

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