Silver Lake Sand Dunes Jeep Invasion
- Michaela
- Jun 5
- 5 min read
This past weekend was our first vendor show of the 2025 show season at Silver Lake Sand Dunes in Mears, Michigan. This was our first year attending the show so we were very excited for the unknown of the event. The show is a multi day event starting Thursday evening and running until Sunday morning for Jeep Church. Friday and Saturday are full days of riding the dunes, checking out the vendor midway, or exploring the town. Friday kicks off with the annual poker run visiting multiple local businesses around town. Throughout the day, there are three raffle drawings for registered attendees starting at 2pm and then happening every two hours later. At 4pm on Friday, they have a larger raffle sponsored by Lane Automotive for some bigger door prizes like a winch, floor mats, and other goodies. To participate in the raffles you have to have your official Jeep Invasion lanyard since the dunes attract so many people to the park every weekend. Saturday starts with the official parade across the dunes and a craft show in the vendor midway. The rest of the midway is filled with Jeeps for the show and shine competition. Otherwise, Saturday is run the same as Friday but the larger raffle is at 6pm instead of 4pm. The event closes on Sunday morning with breakfast and Jeep Church.
Silver Lake State Park spans nearly 3,000 acres along the Lake Michigan shoreline. Although much of the parkland is covered with sugar-sand dunes, the park also features a four-mile Lake Michigan beach, inland Silver Lake, wooded hiking trails, a campground with boat launches, and a towering lighthouse. Next to the state park is the town of Mears, offering a variety of additional lodging options and visitor attractions. The Silver Lake area is perfect for summertime family getaways in Pure Michigan. Silver Lake offers offroad enthusists 450 acres to drive across the dunes and is the only location east of the Mississippi River where you can. Once a vehicle is Dune Ready, you can try your driving skills in the ever changing dunes which features a drag strip, beach shoreline, and one massive dune called Test Hill. Test Hill is a directional dune meaning if you get stuck you either have to get someone from the top to pull you up OR back all the way back down the dune as turning around is not allowed. But before you have a chance at Test Hill, you have to be Dune Ready to enter the ORV area of the park. Dune Ready means you have your Michigan State Park Recreational Pass, your Michigan ORV and ORV Trail stickers, you have an orange safety flag attached to the front of your vehicle that is 10ft heigh, they have a pole your flag has to hit as you enter the park, and you have aired down your tires. The entrance to the sand offers no good spot to air down as you are immediately in the rolling sand.
For our trip, my friends, boyfriend, sister and I decided to camp at one of the mainly campgrounds in the area, Silver Hills Campground. It's a very nice campground that I know I will defiently be returning to. The sites had lots of room and the bathrooms were very clean. The staff was friendly and helpful with moving us to sites next to each other. Our camping set up consisted of 2 ground tents, a rooftop tent on an overland Chevy Silverado Trail Boss, and a truck bed camper in a Dodge Ram. We cooked out all three nights after finishing the days at the booth. Thursday night was smoked sausage with potatoes, Friday night was hot dogs and brats with my homemade pasta salad, and Saturday night was Blackstone fajita nachos because I forgot the tortillas. The nights were very cold as Michigan couldn't remember that it's supposed to be warm at the end of May beginning of June. For breakfast we went out to eat as we originally planned on having ceral in the morning but after cold nights we decided hot food was a better idea. Friday morning with my boyfriend and sister we got McDonalds because it wasn't too far away and mobile ordering is so nice since my jeep is only a two seater and there was 3 of us. Saturday morning with all of us at camp we went to Michigan Base Camp for breakfast which was super close to the campground and on the way to the dunes. I highly recommend their bagel breakfast sandwich and their Test Hill iced latte. The latte is salted caramel which is one of my favorite flavors.
Now for the all important, how was the show? It was great. I got to be set up by my friends at L2 Graphics who made the official stickers for Jeep Invasion. The booth got a lot of traffic from people walking around and I had two items tie for the best sellers of the weekend. The But Did You Die? Hoodie sold well as that design always does and the hoodie itself fits well under a jacket proving to be helpful as we had cold temperatures all weekend. My new design, Life's a Wave Ride the Dune on the royal blue crewneck sold just as well as the hoodie did and both designs being displayed at the front of the booth drew people in to check out the warm hoodies and crews. Saturday morning during the parade, I got to check out the craft show since it opened earlier than the vendors did and boy did I find some good stuff. I got new air freshies for both my car and jeep (as well as 1 for my mom and sister) from Rustic Rascals. I think Tipsy Cowgirl is my favorite scent. My sister got some baked goods for herself and our parents' dog as well. We then spent the day at the booth selling, eating delicious food from the food trucks right by the booth and my sister determined to get her moneys worth from the Wild Bill soda truck.
After packing up on Saturday I was finally able to get out on the dunes for sunset. My sister drove my jeep most of the time and she was disappointed with how it didn't preform while drag racing my friend's gladiator. It was the perfect way to end a good vendor show weekend before my three hour drive home on Sunday. Thankfully, the jeep had no problems driving there and back as well before it got washed and parked again until the next wheeling trip or local coffee meet up.
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