It was lovely to have a view out over the lake this morning for breakfast, and great to hear a few messages from the kids. Mainly from Erin, reporing in on how Pepper had coped with her move to the new home in Newtown.
After checking out we had around a 45 minute drive to Silver Lake where I was excited to try out one of th iconic experiences of the Lake Michigan East coast – a dune ride! The sand dunes along this shoreline are collosal and the Mac Woods family have been operating rides on the dunes in Silver lake since the 1930s. It was so much fun! The driver had a great line of jokes and it was so exhilarating riding up over the dunes, with views to a lovely blue Lake Michigan. 40 minues just flew by.
Just a couple of kilometres up the road we stopped at Little Sable Point Lighthouse,the tallest lighthouse on lake Michigan.
After that we had a couple of hours to drive further north up into the “mitten” of Michigan. (If you look at the map of Michigan it really does look like a mitten!). We stopped for a little break at the pretty town of Beaulah for a coffee and a muffin. Luckily the view over the lake helped me put up with Neil doing the “Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?” bit on repeat…
At Empire, we stopped in at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National lakeshore Visitor Centre . Sleeping Bear Dunes have the hughest dunes on the lake and they’re managed by the National park service. I picked up a guide for the Pierce Stocking Scenic drive, a 7 miles loop through the dunes which takes you to the best spots and through some lovely green woodland.
Pierce Stocking was a lumberman in Michigan’s forests. He used to walk the bluffs above Lake Michigan, awed by the views of the dunes, Lake Michigan and the islands, he wanted to share this beauty with others and conceived the idea of a road to the top of the dunes. As a lumberman, he had built roads in difficult terrain before. The planning for the road began in the early 1960’s, and in 1967, the road, then known as the Sleeping Bear Dunes Park, first opened to the public. The first part of the drive takes you through a covered bridge ( first one of these we’ve actually driven through on this trip!)
The major point of the loop is the viewpoint over the highest dunes, 450 feet above the lake. The view was spectacular and there was quite a crowd on the observation deck. The lake levels are very high this year and there are signs, effectively pleading with people NOT to go down the dune, because the only way back is to climb back up and its a doozy of a climb. Despite that there were a few nitwits who just HAD to go down there – the crowd at the top watched in amusement as the inched their way back up the dune – on their hands and knees!
Further down the road is the officially sanctioned dune climb area and there were plenty of people having a go at this one ( but not us!)
We stopped to visit Glen Haven, a small preserved village on the Lake Michigan shoreline. The National Parks service maintains it to record a time when small villages and docks supplied fuel to steamers along the Great Lakes. Glen Haven is the best preserved cord wood station on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan and perhaps the entire Great Lakes. We stopped in at the small maritime museum to take a look at the boat house.
Another hour up the road we arrived at Fishtown. Fishtown is a collection of weathered fishing shanties, smokehouses, overhanging docks, fish tugs and charter boats along the Leland River in Leland, Michigan. On the narrow weathered dock you could feel a connection to the long tradition of Great Lakes maritime culture.
From Fishtown we turned back south for a change, driving down along the Grand Traverse bay which is an offshoot of Lake Michigan, heading for our hotel in the town of Traverse City. I’d booked us into a hotel right on the waterfront so we decided to havy a lazy picnic dinner tonight on our verandah. A stop at a nearby gourmet deli had us stocked up on local wine, beer and nibbles and it was wonderful to relax and watch the sunset over the bay.
