Grand Traverse Bay

The first thing people notice about Grand Traverse Bay is the color. On a clear, calm summer day the shallows glow a pale sandy gold that deepens to bands of green and vivid turquoise, and the water is clean enough that you can look down from a boat and count the stones on the bottom in many feet of water. It is not the tropics; the color comes from the bay being a deep, cold, clean arm of one of the largest freshwater lakes on Earth, its water constantly exchanged with the open expanse of Lake Michigan.

That same cold depth means the swimming is refreshing more than warm, especially early in the season, but it is exactly what keeps the water so clear and the beaches so inviting. Come August the shallow, sandy stretches near town warm enough for happy afternoons of wading and swimming, and the bay stays a magnet for sailors, paddlers, and anglers all summer long.

The Old Mission Peninsula is the bay's defining feature, a slim green ridge running due north from Traverse City almost to the middle of Grand Traverse Bay. Only a few miles wide but nearly twenty long, it separates the bay into two arms and offers one of the finest scenic drives in the Midwest, a ribbon of road climbing between cherry orchards and vineyards with blue water visible on both sides at once.

The peninsula also carries the region's oldest layer of American history. Old Mission, near its tip, was the first permanent American settlement in northern Michigan, founded in 1839 when a missionary was sent to build a church and school among the Anishinaabe and Odawa people who had lived and fished along these shores for generations. The peninsula ends at a point and a historic lighthouse, a satisfying reward at the end of the drive.

The gentle, sunny climate that the big bay creates, moderating the cold and the heat alike, turned this shoreline into orchard country. The slopes around Grand Traverse Bay grow a huge share of the nation's tart cherries, and in late spring the whole region foams with cherry blossom, while July brings the ripe fruit and Traverse City's National Cherry Festival. Those same tempered slopes now grow prized cool-climate wine grapes on both the Old Mission and nearby Leelanau peninsulas.

For all that, the bay's heart is still the water. Traverse City sits right at the foot of the West Arm with sandy public beaches, waterfront parks, and a marina full of masts, and from there sailboats, kayaks, and tour boats fan out across the two arms all season. Underwater, a state bottomland preserve protects historic shipwrecks for divers, a reminder that this beautiful bay was also a working harbor of the Great Lakes lumber and shipping era.

Traverse City is the natural base, sitting right at the southern end of the West Arm where nearly everything is within a few minutes of the water. From there you can walk to a public beach, launch a paddleboard, or set out on the Old Mission Peninsula drive, and the town has all the food, fuel, and lodging a road trip needs. The public beaches and overlooks are free.

Give yourself a slow day at minimum. Swim or wade at a West Arm beach in the morning, drive the peninsula in the afternoon with stops at overlooks and the lighthouse at the tip, and end back in town by the water at sunset. Come in July for the blossoms turned to fruit and the Cherry Festival, or in September and October for quieter beaches, crisp air, and the orchards turning color. In any season, this long clear bay is the reason people fall in love with northern Michigan.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.