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Lower Peninsula Michigan: Tuesday, June 14, 2022

A selfie at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Shoreline.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a sprawling national park that consists of three separate units plus two islands, North Manitou and South Manitou, accessible by a ferry. The most popular attraction, the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, a 7.4-mile driving tour with lots of stops, is in the middle unit. There are also miles of trails, two campgrounds, the fast-running canoeable Platte River, a historic ghost town, plenty of lakes, thick forests, and lots of sand. There are stretches of sand bluffs, sand cliffs, oceans of sandy waves, sand ridges that have filled in prehistoric lake bays, and sand beaches.


However, before reaching Sleeping Bear, we stopped off at Frankfort, one of two QTs in this area. Frankfort, yet another town on a channel that drains a lake into Lake Michigan, was pretty small. The old cinema was now a combination movie theater and live music venue. I liked that amalgamation a lot. 


Like so many tiny towns, Frankfort had banners with pictures of the graduating seniors hanging on the downtown light posts. I hadn’t seen this practice before COVID took away graduation ceremonies. Now small communities everywhere routinely do this. Instead of graduating seniors, some towns hang banners of local military personnel, both past and present. Either one is fine by me. It is a nice way to give some locals a little special attention.

As far as QTs go, Frankfort is subdued and laid-back in that upper LP style that we have grown to appreciate.

The Garden is a combo movie theater and live entertainment venue.

The Hotel Frankfort.

Both the hair and the last name, Bigley, caught my eye. Bigley, of course, is a word that Trump introduced into our lexicon, along with confefe.

Just north of Frankfort is another lighthouse in a long list of Great Lakes lighthouses. This one has been turned into a resort-like rental opportunity. What an interesting idea - another income stream to keep up a historic structure. Of course, it limits the public from touring a publicly owned property.

This lighthouse makes a nice BnB.

The ever-shifting sands are covering up the benches by the shoreline.

Entering the National Lakeshore from the south meant that our first hiking trail was the Old Indian Trail. This trail ended up on Lake Michigan's shore, full of soft sand dunes. The only bummer was the onslaught of flies that attacked our legs just as we reached the water. A quick retreat from the water solved that pesky problem.


Next, we came across the Platte River. This racing stream couldn’t wait to feed Lake Michigan. It was crystal clear and plenty deep for canoes, kayaks, and tubes which it was virtually clogged with. At $52 a canoe, the local outfitter was cleaning up. Ironically, after racing hell-bent to the lake, as soon as it came within 10 feet of spilling into it, the little Platte grew shy, abruptly turned 90º, and ran parallel to the lake for a good half-mile before finally, meekly merging with the big Lake.

Now, that's a tree-carbuncle.

The Platte River finally deciding to join Lake Michigan.

This is a picture of a Plover from a plaque at the Platte River area. I included it only because our home, back in Wisconsin, is on the Plover River, which is named after this bird. Apparently, it is endangered and a large section of the mouth of the Platte River area was sectioned off as protective Plover habitat.

By the time we reached the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, the clouds rolled in and quickly covered the sky with a drab overcast. The overlook stops were still impressive, especially the 400 foot high dune cliff where the sleeping bear was hibernating.


In the 1700s, a smallish two-humped dune with lots of furry vegetation growing on its top, looked similar to a bear lying down. Three centuries later the wind has cut into the shape quite a bit. It looks a lot less like a sleeping bear now. But, the name stuck nonetheless.

The Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive is a 7.4-mile-long loop. About 100 years ago, much of these lush woods were bare sandy dunes. The grasses and trees stabilize the dunes, but they also obscure the dunes.

I was surprised to run across this big mature tree in an area that was only recently claimed by vegetation. These girls were enjoying the tree, probably without any thought of what it was doing there.

(Above) This sand slide was 400' high. (Below) Check out the people struggling to get back up.

The Sleeping Bear is the double-vegetated hump on the edge of the bluff in the background. It takes a lot of imagination to see a slumbering bear in that formation.

The Heritage Biking Trail runs through all three units. I wanted to tackle the trail with our ebikes in the worst way. That made the Platte River, and now the Heritage Bike Trail, ample impetus to come back for. If we just had two more days!


Oh well, back to our current exploration. We inspected all the remaining highlights including the Dune Climb, the Glen Haven Historic Village which was basically a ghost town but highly restored, and Pyramid Point.

The Dune Climb.

The Glen Haven Historic Village is a ghost town that has been restored. In fact, the above hotel is being refurbished. I couldn't tell if it was going to be a museum or an actual hotel. The story is that David Henry Day, a clever businessman, bought up all the land in this area in the late 1800s and built his own town. At first, it was a lumber town. After the lumber played out, he tapped agriculture to sustain his endeavor. He introduced fruit orchards into the area. In conjunction with that, he built and ran a cherry canning factory. Interestingly, he recognized the temporary nature of lumbering so he became a pioneer in sustainable forestry. When the automobile began making a splash, he helped to promote road building in the northern LP and developed his town into a tourist destination.

The original cherry cannery has been restored and is now a maritime museum.

These boats are mostly rescue ships. I love the mustache on the above boat.

An antique gas pump for those early tourists arriving by car.

We were overdue for another hike, so we trekked the three-mile Bay View Trail. It wasn’t exactly a view of the bay as the name would suggest. Instead, it comprised a series of ridges from a former bay that has been filled in with alternating parallel waves of sand and long troughs of wetlands.


By this time, the skies cleared. We made a quick return drive through Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive to retake some of the overlook photos with the improved lighting.

A bridge over one of the wetland troughs in this former Lake Michigan bay. 

(Below) Our return trip to the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive after the overcast cleared out.

All this greenery was sand dunes just 50 years ago.

This was our last night at our first Boondockers Welcome site. I have to say that our host, Dan, provided us with a terrific stay. I left him $20 for the two nights. It was worth every penny.


It was also our last day on the Lake Michigan Lakeshore of the LP. Tomorrow we move inland to the Gaylord/Greyling area in the middle of the northern LP. We have three days reserved at the Hartwick Pines State Park. It will be our only stay at a Michigan state park on this trip.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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