Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Guide

Sleeping Bear Dunes piles sand up to 450 feet above Lake Michigan, a wall of dunes so enormous and so beautiful that Good Morning America once voted it the most beautiful place in America — and standing at the top of the Dune Climb or the Lake Michigan Overlook, with the turquoise water far below and the dunes rolling away, it’s hard to argue. The Ojibwe legend gives it its name: a mother bear who swam the lake with her cubs and lies waiting on the shore. The Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive threads the high dunes, and the beaches, the ghost forest, and the Manitou Islands offshore round it out. It’s the heart of “Up North” vacationland.