Old Baldy Trail at Petoskey State Park in Northern Michigan offers great views of Lake Michigan year-round. Its rustic staircases and conclusion down Old Baldy Sand Dune make for a fun hike, even though the trail itself is only a half-mile long. It is probably the most popular hike in the state park according to trail websites and apparently allows dogs and camping on site.

The basic park address is 2475 M-119, Petoskey, MI 49770 but the exact trail can be found on Google maps using these coordinates. Park in the furthest lot after taking the entrance via Park road. 

 Park at Doyne Park on 5300 W Wells Street. Walk down underneath the bridge and you should see the image shown. If you're looking for the shopping cart building, the coordinates are 43°02’28.3”N and 87°58’09.2”W.

Search "Hillcrest Park" in your map app. Park wherever you want in Hillcrest. The tower that you can climb should be obvious as soon as you arrive, but the building is harder to find. It's not the one you see when you drive in - it's the one by the giant fenced-in area to the right of the Missile Launch radar tower. The door to the leftmost side (closest to the tower) is the one easiest to open. Good luck!

During the Cold War, the United States was peppered with Missile Launch sites, like this one owned by Nike. The tower that everyone climbed never contained a missile, but was instead a radar tower for monitoring the area. There was originally a ladder that would take workers to the top, but it was stripped when the site closed down. You can still see the metal sides of where the ladder used to be. The only remaining way to climb the tower is to go up the metal structure inside and through a hole.

The actual missile was kept in the large concrete area that is still fenced off. Any extra equipment belonged in the building below this, now known as "The Dungeon." Workers at the site have told me that they aim to convert this building into a small Cold War museum in the next few years since they're sick of "intruders" like myself.