Excerpted from The Road Guide: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore by Susan Stites. Copyright © 1998. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Who can resist the call of the dunes? A tour of this National Lakeshore will take you to historic Lighthouses, through hardwood forests, around marshes, over rivers and to the tops of 400-foot dunes. You can spend quiet times on walking trails or cool off in small or great lakes. Hike, sail, swim, walk, ski, bike, picnic, canoe, camp, skip stones, search for Petoskey stones, or visit museums,. the activities are endless. Or maybe what you're looking for is no activity except another layer of sun-tan oil and a quick trip to Z-land before dinner. There are places where you will be undisturbed. For hikers, that quiet spot on top of Pyramid Point speaks through the elements of a geologic time before ours. You can hear it again on Empire Bluff and on Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive as you view the Sleeping Bear and her Cubs, the Manitou Islands. You'll get a sense of nature by watching the sand hills give up their edges to the wind, or perhaps feel the stinging sand on your skin carried by gusts off Lake Michigan. Nature is here. Peering from the cliff of a dune out onto the horizon, the only obstruction to your view is the earth's curve. Let the motion of each wave lull you to join the rhythm of this Great Lake, these Great Dunes, and this moment in time. Crystal River gently flows from a small inland lake to the Great Lake. You can canoe this crystal clear river and catch the glimmer of salmon in the fall, shore your canoe for Morel mushroom hunting in the spring, or exchange dipping your paddles for a dip in the river to cool your heels from the summer heat. As you listen to the waves and sand, the river and wind let the calmness of nature gently relax your body and relieve your mind of daily worries. They are miles away too. This is the home of legends. The Sleeping Bear rests here overlooking her cubs, The Manitou Islands. The Lost Daughter of Leelanau appears on misty mornings appearing to glide over the water. The Ghost Fleet of The Manitou Passage lie motionless on the sandy Lake Michigan bottom. The legends live on through your photos and your memories. Let the lingering whisper of The Sleeping Bear call your sensitivity to nature awake - and when you leave, call you back to her again.

The Road Guide: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
written by Susan Stites
ISBN 0-9665316-0-4