Waking a Sleeping Bear

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was named by Good Morning America as the most beautiful place in America. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the views of massive sand dunes on the shores of Lake Michigan is certainly a sight to be seen!

We drove down from Mackinac City crossing the mighty Mackinac Bridge into the lower, mitten-part of Michigan, and crossed to the western side of the state. We settled into the Platte River Campground on the southern end of the lakeshore.

We had to pick up some medications, so on our first day there, we drove into Traverse City, and traveled up a narrow spit of land to the Mission Bay Lighthouse. The drive to the lighthouse, along M-37, through cherry orchards and vineyards was as pleasant as the iconic lighthouse itself.

The Mission Point Lighthouse was built in 1870 and is no longer in service, although you can  sign up to be a light keeper.

The next day we explored some of the lakeshore, including the massive dunes that fall away steeply to the edge of the water. The lakeshore takes its name from an old Indian legend of a mama bear and her two cubs who were swimming across the lake to escape either a fire or a famine, depending on who’s telling the story. Before they reached the shore, as the legend goes, the cubs tired of the swim and drowned in the lake, before rising up as two small islands visible from the shore. The mama bear made it to land, where exhausted and heart broken, she laid down to rest along the shore. From the right angle, the landscape sort of resembles a large bear laying prone along the lake.

Sleeping Bear’s most famous attraction is the Dune Climb, a 284-foot-high wall of glistening white sand that visitors climb for fun. Most of the dunes on the lakeshore are created when the wind piles up sand from Lake Michigan. The sand at the Dune Climb comes from dunes higher up on the Sleeping Bear Plateau.

The climb itself isn’t too rough. You sink into the sand with every step, but with a little persistence, you can reach the top of the dune and look over the azure blue waters of the great lake to the west below you. The real fun comes on the way down, when you can run down the slope at breakneck speed, knowing there is soft sand to cushion every step or fall.

Days: 211

Miles Travelled: 25,544

Next Stop: Tobermory, Ontario