As we work our way south along Lake Michigan’s eastern shore, we are gradually getting into more crowded environments. Although tourism has been the lifeblood of most of the areas we’ve visited over the past month, the towns are more populated and the shops higher end.
Virtually all of the eastern shore is covered with dunes and sometimes they are really big. And, as on Lake Superior, every coastal town was dependent on its harbor so they are virtually all protected by elaborate breakwaters with navigation lights at their ends.
2025-08-14 – Silver Lake Sand Dunes, MI
As usual, we chose to follow the coast when we departed Traverse City to head south to Silver Lake. But first we drove north a bit, passing through Sutton’s Bay to the end of the peninsula that forms Grand Traverse Bay.
We wanted to have a look at Grand Traverse Lighthouse. The three story white brick structure actually looks like a large house with an outsized cupola atop its red roof.
Along with several other lighthouses along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, this lighthouse is owned by the Sable Points Lighthouse Keepers Association. The association is an NPO dedicated to restoring and preserving lighthouses and operates them as museums.
We stopped at Sleeping Bear Dunes a number of years ago but really only took a quick look. This time we thought we’d attempt the “Dune Climb”. While much of the dunes area is protected, the park set aside an area with a large parking lot where people are encouraged to climb a very large dune. It appeared to be a daunting climb in loose sand but we said to ourselves, “Sure, we can do that!”
And we did and it was a real slog. Then, as we were cresting the steepest part of the slope, we saw that the dune had another dune on top of it! Ugh! But, in-for-a -dime … so we climbed that dune only to discover that the dune’s dune had another dune on top! By that time we were hot, sweating and beat. And then we discovered there was still a long way to go to be able to see Lake Michigan from the top of the dunes. Embracing the better part of valor, we gave up and returned to our car.
Also at Sleeping Bear Dunes is Glen Haven Beach. While we didn’t sample its waters, we both agreed that it was the prettiest beach we’ve seen on this trip!
Nearby Sleeping Bear Point is the Coast Guard Station Maritime Museum housed in the old Glen Haven Canning Company building. The building once canned locally grown cherries. But now it is filled with a nice collection of Coast Guard small craft.
20250814_183835998 Cannery Boathouse Museum
Continuing south we made a stop to see the Point Betsie Lighthouse. It’s another nice, red-roofed, white brick structure attached directly to the relatively short lighthouse. We didn’t tour the inside but did admire the pebble covered flower urn in the front yard.
Arriving at Silver Lake State Park’s campground, we set up in our site across a campsite road from its namesake lake. It was late in the day so we started cooking dinner and then set up our table and chairs on the lake shore to admire the sunset. The sunset was something of a disappointment but the view was lovely.
2025-08-15 – Silver Lake Sand Dunes, MI
We drove to the Little Point Sable Lighthouse a couple of miles beyond our campground. It’s a classic tall, yellow-brick tapered tower sitting right on a beautiful sand beach. We chose to admire it but not to buy a ticket for the privilege of waiting in line to climb it.
The huge dunes area between Silver Lake and Lake Michigan have been divided into three sections. One is reserved for the public to play on their personal off-road-vehicles or ORVs, another for the public to hike and play on the beach and the third for companies to offer rides through the dunes to the public. Bill entertained the idea of renting an ORV and driving through the dunes ourselves. He’s not sure whether she didn’t trust his driving skills or like the $400 price tag of a 2-hour rental, but we settled on taking a $25/person, forty minute tour with Mac Wood’s Dune Rides in a large, 16 passenger dune buggy.
Bill’s expectations weren’t very high but he was surprised. The modified F-250 with its big V-10, locked-up four wheel drive and modified suspension did just fine. It accelerated fast on the trail through the sand, drifted sideways through the corners and just flew across the tickle-belly-bumps. And the steep downhill to the beach got everyone’s attention. It was a fun experience!
Along the way our driver, a high school science teacher and football coach who’d been driving this gig for fourteen years, explained about fulgurites. When lightning strikes the sand on the dunes, it melts the sand where it strikes leaving an irregular glassy spike in the sand. Fulgurites are hard to find but they had several on display in Mac Wood’s gift shop. The longest one was about 2.5 feet long.
Sandy took a nice walk on the beach and later we enjoyed a shrimp & veggie stir fry for dinner.
2025-08-16 – Silver Lake Sand Dunes, MI
We took a drive north to look over the small town of Ludington. First impression was how pretty it was. All the downtown streets were lined with pink and white petunias and we mean lots of petunias!
As usual, high on our list was the waterfront and Ludington didn’t disappoint. It had a great harbor protected by two long breakwaters. Sandy loves to walk out to the ends of breakwaters and she did so on the northern pier to see the North Breakwater Light.
Afterwards we had lunch at the House of Flavors Restaurant.
Heading back we drove through the smaller town of Pentwater. Its main streets were all lined with folding chairs occupied by viewers waiting to watch their annual Homecoming parade. Homecoming is the big event time in town. Besides the parade, events include a Strawberry Shortcake Social, sand sculpture contest, horseshoe tournament, fireworks and more. Sadly, it began to rain and people started heading for protected spaces before the parade even started. Rain continued into the evening.
That evening we had sautéed chicken tenders with a soy-hoisin-maple syrup sauce, green beans and Sandy’s leftover baked potato from lunch!