Big Sable Point Lighthouse, Ludington State Park Guide

Big Sable Point wears the most striking paint job on the Great Lakes — a 112-foot tower banded in bold black and white like a barber pole — and you don’t just look at it, you climb it: 130 steps up to the watch room and out onto the catwalk for a view over Ludington State Park’s dunes and forest into Lake Michigan. The catch, and the reason it stays unspoiled, is that you can’t drive to it. It’s a 1.8-mile walk in along a sand path from the nearest lot, which filters out the casual crowd and rewards the ones who make the trek. Ludington State Park itself is one of the best in the state — dunes, two lakes, the Big Sable River, and miles of trail — so the light is the payoff at the end of a great day outdoors.