To go Back at any time,
use Browser's "Previous Page"
Today’s highlight was Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore west of Traverse City. Since some readers might wonder, it is named after an Indian legend about a mother bear and her cubs that swam across Lake Michigan to escape a forest fire. Sad story --- the cubs didn’t make it and became two islands, North and South Manitou. Waiting endlessly for her cubs, the mother bear became Sleeping Bear Dunes. Thought you should know.
The park is hilly, fringed with massive shoreline sand dunes and dotted with many lakes. Before reaching the dunes, there are miles of dense forest to drive through, reclaimed over the centuries from the underlying dunes.
It’s a long way down and back up!
Vegetation persistently tries to gain a foothold:
Folks come from as far away as Pennsylvania to see the park --- or, so they say.
Tonight, we rest in Traverse City before a drive to Old Mission on the skinny little peninsula that juts into Grand Traverse Bay.