Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore protects 35 miles of the Lake Michigan shoreline in northwestern Michigan's Lower Peninsula, including the Sleeping Bear Dune Climb — a steep 450-foot ascent of bare sand that provides panoramic views over South and North Manitou Islands. The park's Dune Overlook off Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive has become one of the most recognized photography locations in the Great Lakes region, placing viewers above vertical sand scarps that drop hundreds of feet to the turquoise-blue water below. The park also contains inland lakes, beech-maple forest, and the rural farmsteads of the early settler Port Oneida Rural Historic District.