MidwestWeekends.com — Your Travel Guide to the Upper Midwest
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Lake Michigan

Grand sand

Along Lake Michigan, the Sleeping Bear Dunes are a giant playground for all ages.

One Great Lake east of Superior, there’s another North Shore.

It doesn’t have any craggy points or sheer palisades, and there are no agates waiting to be found. It has no waterfalls, and not a scrap of basalt; in fact, there’s nothing volcanic about it.

But this north shore, on the leeward side of Lake Michigan, has something Minnesota's beautiful North Shore on Lake Superior doesn’t have: Sand, lots and lots of sand.

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Navigating Lake Michigan

Following the sandy shores of this great lake, tourists pass through many worlds.

If one trip around a great lake is good, then two must be even better.

I had a great time circling Lake Superior, and I’ve always wanted to do it again. But for me, something new always trumps something old. I’d never been around Lake Michigan, and I’d been thinking about its attractions: The Mackinac Bridge. Gigantic sand dunes. A car ferry across the lake. And other stuff you won’t see on Lake Superior, bless its icy heart.

Lake Michigan isn’t the biggest lake, or the deepest. Its shores aren’t the most dramatic. But they can be the most dangerous — they’re lined by sandy shoals, which can snag a ship as surely as rock.

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