Stop signs and blowing hurriedly stuck down notices declaring the areas along the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore closed (again due to the old government shut down - you can see a theme developing across these posts can't you?!) were getting little attention. Like in many of the National run parks and forests people literally were driving their cars around the aforementioned signs.
As we drove along the scenic drive from Traverse City via Leelanau State Park and back south along US-22 you can see why the Sleeping Bear Dunes and the drive we tried to get onto was voted the most Beautiful place in America by Good Morning America in 2011. Even on an autumnal day you could see the dots of tourists as they climbing their way up the Sleeping Bear Dunes and while the scenic car dive was closed as a result of the shut down, we like many took to our feet and walked to one of the many look outs over the dunes instead.
To say the views from the North Bar Lake Overlook were stunning is somewhat of an understatement and the camera fails to capture just how investigating beautiful the vista over the sand dunes towards Lake Michigan actually was. Perhaps more so after the arduous up hill climb without really knowing where we were heading, aching feet, growing blisters and the heat didn't help, but this is what we saw;
Sleeping Bear Dunes cover a 35 mile stretch in north west Michigan are named as such after the Chippewa legend of a huge fire upon the western end of Lake Michigan which drove a mother and her two cubs to fee and swim across the lake towards the shore. Mother bear reached the safety of the shore, yet tired after the swim she laid down to wait for her cubs, sadly they drowned. The Great Spirit watching the cubs determination, created the North and South Manitou Islands to commemorate the two cubs while the winds covered the sleeping mother bear.
Sometimes the beauty of nature really just dwarfs you.
Where would you vote as being the most beautiful place in America? I'd love to hear!
Sometimes the beauty of nature really just dwarfs you.
Where would you vote as being the most beautiful place in America? I'd love to hear!
Wow, they are stunning although such a sad but sweet little story to go with it :( And the sea looks so blue!! x
ReplyDeleteI know, the water here is amazingly blue, even in the rivers which makes a difference from the British North Sea I grew up with! It looks like a sea too doesn't it, but it's actually Lake Michigan - which makes up the Great Lakes, the largest freshwater lakes in the world, they are often called Freshwater Seas because they contain 21% of the worlds fresh water!
DeleteOh wow, what a beautiful view!! I love these posts about places in America that you don't hear about as much :)
ReplyDeleteJess xo
Thanks Jess, I love being able to blog about these places that possibly otherwise would never get a mention. Hopefully comes to show there's big, beautiful and exciting stuff to see and do outside of the big city lights of say New York and San Francisco etc!
DeleteSuch beautiful pictures! Views always look even better after a long walk :)
ReplyDeleteVery, very true especially after having to climb up some now forested over dunes, wasn't the easiest of walks or sure but very worth it for the view alone.
DeleteSo so beautiful and peaceful. Love v
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the pictures capture the peacefulness of the dunes, even though there were people around, it was incredibly quiet.
DeleteUh wow it looks so beautiful! I think we move too fast sometimes to really take the beauty of it all in- I know that sounds like a really cheesy, eye roll comment but it's so true haha! xxx
ReplyDeleteYeah I know what you mean, I think we all could do with just stopping and taking things in that are around us more, I think technology had made is wanting everything now now now that we just forgot, or at least it feels odd to just stop for a little.
DeleteWow your photos look beautiful. Nature is simply breath-taking right?
ReplyDeletehttp://thelittlebigobsession.blogspot.co.uk
I can never tire of the beauty of nature, that is for sure!
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