Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Sleeping Bear packs an unusual range of activities into a compact area. The Dune Climb is the iconic challenge — a steep wall of sand that rewards the effort with a sweeping view over Glen Lake — while the 7.4-mile Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive delivers the same vistas from the car, including the Lake Michigan Overlook perched some 450 feet above the water.

More than 100 miles of trails range from gentle interpretive loops to the lung-testing Dunes Trail out to Lake Michigan. The paved Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail links villages and beaches for cyclists and walkers. Paddlers explore Glen Lake and the Crystal and Platte rivers, and experienced boaters make the crossing to the North and South Manitou Islands for backcountry camping and hike-in wilderness. In winter the same dunes and forests open up to cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.

Summer (June through August) is peak season, with warm water, full visitor services and long daylight for beach days and paddling — and the largest crowds. Early autumn is a local favorite: September and early October bring crisp air, thinning crowds and brilliant maple-and-beech color along the scenic drive.

Spring is quiet and good for birding as migrants return, though Lake Michigan stays cold well into the season. Winter turns the dunes into a stark, beautiful playground for skiing and snowshoeing, but the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive closes and services are limited. A vehicle entrance pass is required year-round.

Long before it was a park, this shoreline was home to Anishinaabe (Ojibwe and Odawa) people, whose oral tradition gives the dunes their name. European-American settlement followed in the mid-1800s, drawn by timber and the steamship trade on Lake Michigan.

Glen Haven grew up as a company town from roughly 1865 to 1931, when a cordwood dock fueled passing Great Lakes steamers and workers were paid in company scrip good only at the company store. The Day family ran sawmills, a cannery and one of the region's earliest auto-tourism campgrounds, leaving behind the preserved village seen today.

By the mid-twentieth century the dunes' fame — and the threat of private development — spurred a long campaign for protection. Congress authorized Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on October 21, 1970, placing roughly 71,000 acres of shore, forest and islands in the care of the National Park Service. In 2011 a national television audience voted it “the Most Beautiful Place in America.”

The Sleeping Bear landscape is a product of the last Ice Age. Between roughly 14,000 and 10,000 years ago the retreating Laurentide ice sheet of the Wisconsin glaciation carved out the Great Lakes basin and left behind moraines, kettle lakes and steep coastal bluffs of glacial till.

The celebrated dunes are perched dunes: rather than sitting at lake level, they ride on top of those high glacial bluffs. Prevailing westerly winds lift sand from the beaches and the lake plateau and pile it hundreds of feet above the water, where it slowly migrates inland and occasionally buries the forest at its edge. Sleeping Bear Point, the Dune Climb and the Lake Michigan Overlook all showcase this rare perched-dune system — one of the largest freshwater examples on Earth.

Sleeping Bear's habitat mosaic makes it a wildlife-watcher's park. The Lake Michigan beaches host nesting piping plovers each summer — one of the Great Lakes' most closely guarded shorebirds — while spring and fall send waves of migrating warblers, raptors and waterfowl along the coast.

In the forests and dune edges, look for white-tailed deer, red fox, porcupine, beaver and the occasional black bear. Glen Lake and the Platte and Crystal rivers hold trout, bass and salmon, and the dark skies over the Manitou Passage make for excellent stargazing on a clear night.

Within a short walk the lakeshore passes through several habitats: open dune and beach, dune grassland, northern hardwood forest of beech and sugar maple, cedar swamp, and the cold, clear waters of inland lakes such as Glen Lake. That mosaic supports a wide diversity of life.

The beaches are nesting grounds for the federally endangered piping plover, and the forests and wetlands shelter white-tailed deer, black bear, porcupine, coyote and a long roster of migratory birds. Fragile dune plants — marram grass, sand cherry and the threatened Pitcher's thistle — anchor the shifting sand and are easily trampled, which is why visitors are asked to keep to marked routes.

The name Sleeping Bear comes from an Anishinaabe story that explains both the dunes and the two Manitou Islands. A mother bear and her two cubs fled a great fire by swimming across Lake Michigan; the exhausted cubs slipped beneath the waves before reaching shore, and the grieving mother lay down on the bluff to wait. The Great Spirit raised two islands where the cubs were lost and marked the watching mother with a solitary dune.

The islands and surrounding waters hold deep significance for the region's Native communities. Alongside that heritage, the preserved Glen Haven company village, historic farmsteads and the Sleeping Bear Point Coast Guard Station keep the area's logging, shipping and life-saving history visible to every visitor.

The Philip A. Hart Visitor Center in Empire (9922 Front Street) is the place to start, with maps, exhibits and current conditions. Empire lies about 25 miles west of Traverse City by way of M-72; Traverse City is the nearest city with a regional airport and full services.

An entrance pass is required and can be purchased at the visitor center or self-pay stations. The main attractions — the Dune Climb, Glen Haven, the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive and the village of Glen Arbor — string along M-109 and County Road 675 north of Empire. Seasonal passenger ferries to the Manitou Islands depart from Leland.

Protecting the dunes means protecting the plants that hold them together. Marram grass, sand cherry and the federally threatened Pitcher's thistle stabilize the sand, and a single careless shortcut can undo years of growth — which is why the Park Service fences sensitive areas and asks visitors to stay on marked routes.

Piping plover nesting zones are roped off through the summer, dogs are restricted on key beaches, and ongoing work targets invasive species in the inland lakes. The Manitou Islands are managed largely as wilderness, preserving old-growth stands and historic farmsteads alike.

The features that make Sleeping Bear beautiful can also be hazardous. The scramble down the towering bluffs to Lake Michigan looks easy and is brutally hard coming back up; rangers routinely rescue exhausted hikers, and posted signs warn that a rescue may be billed. Carry water and know your limits.

Lake Michigan generates dangerous rip currents and stays cold even in summer — check the beach flag warnings before swimming. Sun on open sand is intense, winter brings ice and closed roads, and cell coverage is unreliable in the backcountry and on the islands.

A vehicle entrance pass is required year-round and is checked at trailheads and the Dune Climb. Drones are prohibited, and removing sand, plants, driftwood or historic artifacts is not allowed. Campfires are permitted only in designated sites.

Frontcountry and Manitou Island camping requires a reservation or backcountry permit. Pets must be leashed and are banned from certain beaches and trails to protect nesting birds. Limited hunting is allowed in season under combined federal and state rules.

The gateway villages of Empire and Glen Arbor offer food, lodging and outfitters within minutes of the dunes, and Glen Lake and Little Glen Lake — framed by the bluffs — are local favorites for paddling and swimming.

Traverse City, about 25 miles east, adds wineries on the Leelanau and Old Mission peninsulas, a lively downtown and the nearest airport. To the south, the Platte and Crystal rivers offer gentle paddling, and the Leelanau Peninsula's lighthouses and orchards make an easy day's loop.

Go early or late: the Dune Climb lot and the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive fill by mid-morning on summer weekends, and the low light at either end of the day is far kinder for photos. Bring more water than you think you'll need for the dune hikes.

Wear closed shoes — midsummer sand gets hot enough to burn bare feet — and pack a layer, since the lake breeze can be cool even on warm days. For solitude, catch the ferry to the Manitou Islands or come in late September for color without the crowds.