Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

This coast is the homeland of the Anishinaabe, particularly the Odawa and Ojibwe, part of the Three Fires Confederacy of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples. The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and the Little Traverse Bay Bands are among the communities who live in and steward this region, and the story of the sleeping bear is theirs, a living part of the culture rather than a relic.

In the story, a mother bear and her two cubs swam across Lake Michigan to escape a forest fire. The mother reached the eastern shore and climbed the great dune to watch for her exhausted cubs, but they slipped beneath the water within sight of land. The Great Spirit lifted the cubs from the lake as North and South Manitou Islands, and left the mother resting on the bluff as a solitary dune, forever keeping watch.

The dunes are the work of ice. Great glaciers advanced and retreated across this region over the last two million years, grinding rock into sand and gravel and gouging out the basin that became Lake Michigan. When the ice pulled back for the last time, roughly eleven to twelve thousand years ago, it left behind the high, rubbly bluffs and vast stores of sand that make up the lakeshore.

Winds off the lake then went to work, lifting that sand and piling it onto the glacial highlands to build the perched dunes that stand hundreds of feet above the water. These are not simple beach dunes but sand heaped atop an ancient bluff, which is why the overlooks are so dizzyingly high. The land is still changing, the dunes creeping and the bluffs slowly slumping toward the lake.

The park's most famous features are easy to reach. The Dune Climb is a giant wall of sand that visitors of all ages scramble up, and the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive loops through forest and dune to overlooks perched high above the water, including the vertiginous Lake Michigan Overlook. From up there, the drop to the beach is long and steep, a tempting descent that punishes anyone who tries to climb back up.

Offshore lie North and South Manitou Islands, the cubs of the legend, reachable by ferry in the warmer months and offering wilderness camping, old farmsteads, and a shipwreck visible in the shallows. Back on the mainland, the park's rivers, inland lakes, and long trails give endless room to paddle, hike, and swim.

Summer is the peak, when the water is warm enough to swim, the ferries run to the islands, and the scenic drive is open. The villages of Empire and Glen Arbor buzz, and the whole coast is at its most inviting, though the popular spots draw crowds on fine weekends.

Fall is a favorite for many, when the hardwoods above the dunes turn brilliant and the crowds thin. Winter blankets the dunes and bluffs in snow, with skiers and snowshoers on the quiet trails and shelf ice building along the shore. Spring is cool and green, with wildflowers in the forest and the beaches scoured clean by the winter storms.

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