Trails / Michigan / Sleeping Bear Dunes

White Pine Backcountry Campground (Platte Plains)

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (south of Empire, off M-22)

White Pine Backcountry Campground is a six-site camp on the Platte Plains Trail in the southern part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, about 2 miles from the Trail’s End Road trailhead, according to the National Park Service. Lake Michigan’s beach is about half a mile from camp.

Northern Express, in a 2024 guide to camping at Sleeping Bear, called White Pine “a great site for novice and intermediate backpackers” and quoted a source, identified only as Baughman, describing it this way: “It’s backpacking, but it’s pretty accessible backpacking.”

The hike

The Platte Plains Trail is a set of loops between Empire and the Platte River. An undated NPS hiking brochure describes the loops as 3 to 6 miles each and 15 miles in all; Recreation.gov now says the system has more than 25 miles of trail. The brochure describes mostly flat walking through pine, oak, and aspen woods, with open fields, pine plantations, and low beach dunes near Lake Michigan.

The NPS says White Pine is about 2 miles from the Trail’s End Road trailhead. The brochure puts that trailhead at the end of Trail’s End Road, off M-22 about six miles south of Empire, and lists a 3.6-mile loop from it. It also describes a 6-mile loop that reaches White Pine, with some short, steep hills, and a southernmost loop with rolling hills. The Otter Creek loop (4 miles) starts off Esch Road, about 4 miles south of Empire.

Because the walk in is short, most of the appeal is the time at camp and on the beach. Water at camp means a half-mile walk to Lake Michigan, since there is no well at White Pine, and the NPS says lake water must be treated. Northern Express lists food storage boxes, a community fire ring, and a vault toilet at the campground and notes that White Pine sits in the lakeshore’s designated wilderness.

Recreation.gov says the campground is open year-round and that snow is usually on the ground from late November through March. Northern Express advises nightly tick checks, using boot brushes at trailheads to slow invasive species, and staying out of areas closed for nesting piping plovers.

The NPS current conditions page (Oct. 6, 2026) lists the lakeshore’s trails and trailheads as open; its 2026 closures apply to the Manitou Islands. For island backpacking in the same park, see North Manitou Island and South Manitou Island, both limited by dock work in 2026.

Tips

• Get your permit and park pass before you go. Confirm with the park whether to book on Recreation.gov or pick up in person.
• Print the permit and keep it with you, as Recreation.gov requires.
• Bring a filter for Lake Michigan water, or carry what you need.
• Use the food lockers for food and scented items.
• Pack out all trash. There are no trash receptacles.
• Check for ticks each night.

Camping

Camping is allowed only at White Pine’s designated sites, and campers need a backcountry permit and a park pass, according to the NPS. Recreation.gov says sites are not assigned in advance: campers pick an unoccupied site on arrival, marked by a numbered post. Each site holds up to two tents and four people. Check-in is 2 p.m., check-out is noon, and quiet hours run from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Food and scented items go in the provided lockers when not in use. Fires are allowed only in the communal metal fire ring, using down and dead wood. Pets, bicycles, and other wheeled vehicles are prohibited on the trail and in the campground.

Inside Intel: No camper accounts recommending a specific site were found. Reviewers quoted by Outdoorithm praise “beautiful campsites with an amazing beach close by” and a site “tucked away with a really easy hike.”

Trail facts

• Distance: About 2 miles each way from Trail’s End Road (NPS); a 6-mile loop also reaches camp (NPS brochure)
• Route type: Out and back, or a loop
• Difficulty: Easy
• Campsites: 6, chosen on arrival
• Water: No well; treat Lake Michigan water (about 1/2 mile away)
• Permits: Backcountry permit and park pass
• Food storage: Lockers provided
• Fires: Communal metal fire ring only
• Pets: Prohibited
• Trailhead: Trail’s End Road, off M-22 south of Empire
• Last verified: October 7, 2026

Where this comes from

This page draws on the sources below, along with other guides and trip reports. Links go to the original pages.

• National Park Service: Backcountry camping
• Recreation.gov: White Pine Backcountry Campground Permits
• NPS Sleeping Bear Dunes hiking trails brochure (NPS History)
• National Park Service: Current conditions
• Northern Express: Your Guide to Sleeping Bear Dunes Camping (2024)
• Outdoorithm: White Pine Backcountry Campground

Before you go: This page is based on published trail guides, trip reports, and reviews, along with official park and agency information where we could find it. It’s meant to help backpackers discover new trails, not to replace current, official information. Conditions, closures, permits, campsites, and water sources change, and some details here may be out of date or wrong. Confirm everything with the managing agency and check current conditions before you head out, and don’t rely on this page alone for safety or navigation. Backcountry travel involves risk.