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

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.

One June, I set out to see Lake Michigan with my daughter, Madeleine, and son, Peter. We reached the big lake in scrappy little Green Bay and headed straight for one of Wisconsin’s favorite family attractions. At old-fashioned Bay Beach Amusement Park, we paid 50 cents apiece to ride the Rambler, the Yo-Yo, the Ferris wheel and the train that runs along the bay shore, lined with tall rushes that glowed in the early-evening sun.

The beach house with cupola and waving flag, the beehives of blue cotton candy and the 1970s prices were portents of our tour through Michigan’s down-home Upper Peninsula, which culturally is much closer to Green Bay than to Lansing or Detroit.

From Green Bay, we headed north to Peshtigo. In 1871, the logging town of 1,700 was consumed by a cyclonic firestorm that approached at 300 mph; warned only by a mounting roar, townspeople had time only to grab their Bibles and run.

“It’s said that the next day, people found so many Bible pages floating in the air, they thought it was the end of the world,’’ says Jean Hansen, a curator/guide at the Peshtigo Fire Museum.

More than 1,000 people died, a number that still stands as the nation’s largest loss of life due to fire. But no one paid much attention because of another fire on the same day: The Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

“It’s been 132 years; we should have been heard about by now,’’ Hansen says.

We crossed into Michigan at Menominee, where we stopped for our first pasty, a beef-and-vegetable miner’s lunch that’s still found across the blue-collar Upper Peninsula. Hugging the lakeshore on Michigan 35, we could see the dunes of Door County across Green Bay, and shifting bands of color in the shallow waters offshore: celadon, slate-blue, burgundy.

In Escanaba, we drove past big Ludington Park to the 1868 Sand Point Lighthouse, where a cardboard cutout of Mary Terry stood by the door. Terry, keeper of the light for its first 18 years, lost her life in an 1886 fire whose causes still are being debated. Muscular Escanaba still ships taconite, which lies in piles around the harbor, but its extra-wide main street and abundance of brownstone storefronts speak of the port’s richer days.

In Manistique, we walked along a two-mile boardwalk and out to the 1915 breakwater light. From Manistique, U.S. 2 winds inland to Naubinway, where it rejoins Lake Michigan and winds down to St. Ignace.

From St. Ignace, we got on a ferry and sailed for Mackinac Island. Camera shutters started clicking as we approached the sprawling Grand Hotel on the bluff, and as we pulled into the harbor the woman next to me exclaimed, “Is this not lovely?’’

Billowing lilacs lined sidewalks, and baskets of geranium and ivy cascaded from lampposts. As we walked up to the Disneyesque main street, a smiling bride and groom clopped by in a horse-drawn carriage.

“This smells like the State Fair,’’ my son Peter said, sniffing a mixture of caramel corn, suntan lotion and manure.

“We’ve seen seven fudge shops so far — oh look, eight,’’ Madeleine said. Then she, too, inhaled. “Oh, that’s almost cruel — they’re blowing the smell out at us.’’

Mackinac Island is a tourist trap, no question. But on a sunny, breezy day when the lilacs are blooming, it’s also astoundingly lovely. For a while, we sat on a pebble beach and watched the ferries come and go. We walked out to Arch Rock along a path lined with yellow moccasins and pussytoes. We strolled past frilly Victorian inns and two of its historic churches, both with weddings in progress. We climbed up to Fort Mackinac, an 18th-century fur-trade depot whose soldiers eventually were put to work taking care of tourists, and had lunch on the terrace of the Tea Room, 150 feet above the harbor.

The next day we crossed the Straits of Mackinac on the 5-mile-long Mackinac Bridge, suspended 15 stories above the water. At its feet, we spent the day watching demonstrations and reenactments at Colonial Michilimackinac, a palisade fort built by the French in 1715 and today restored and staffed by interpreters who portray the year 1775, when it was controlled by the British.

From Mackinaw City, we followed the lake down to Harbor Springs, where we drove through the old-money enclave of the Wequetonsing Association, founded in 1880, and into the gleaming downtown of galleries and cafes, ending up on the sugar sand of Zorn Park Beach.

“Everything’s perfect,’’ Madeleine noted.

“Everyone’s rich,’’ Peter replied.

We’d left the U.P. far behind and entered the orbit of affluent Detroit and Chicago. From Harbor Springs we drove on to Petoskey, with its Historic Gaslight District and faux-Victorian monstrosity just west of town, the Village on Bay Harbor. In pleasant Charlevoix, which straddles the channel between Lake Michigan and Lake Charlevoix, we took a break to eat frozen custard and stroll downtown, and to wade on the Michigan Avenue beach, a tucked-away pocket of sand across from a cement factory. We negotiated the busy strip through Traverse City and headed straight west for Empire and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Then we took a few days to play in the sand, along a dramatic coastline the Ojibwe likened to a reclining bear, across from two islands that represent her cubs. We canoed down the Platte River, then got into its warm, crystal-clear water to swim the rest of the way into icy Lake Michigan. We scrambled up the Dune Climb, an inland Sahara with a panorama of Glen Lake. We walked along the top of the “450,’’ a dune that descends into the lake from Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, and swam from the sandbar that separates warm North Bar Lake from cold Lake Michigan.

One day, we drove up the Leelanau Peninsula, a name invented by Henry Schoolcraft, the Indian agent/scholar who also came with the name Itasca for the Mississippi headwaters. Considered the little finger of the lower Michigan “mitten,’’ it’s a tourist backwater compared with the Traverse City area but still has its share of fudge shops and boutiques.

In Leland, we wandered through Fishtown, a collection of weathered gray fishing shanties that now house T-shirt and candy shops. From there, ferries take backcountry campers to North Manitou Island and day-trippers to South Manitou Island, which has an 1871 lighthouse, a grove of giant cedars, the visible wreck of the Francisco Morazan and ranger talks that cover island history.

In Northport, we stopped for root-beer floats and to swim at the municipal beach, and at the tip of the peninsula we visited old Grand Traverse Light, built in 1858.

Our favorite spot along the lakeshore was Empire, a former logging village named for a schooner that became icebound there in 1865. You could buy pasties there, and it seemed the whole town congregated at the municipal beach, where we watched a spectacular sunset.

For now, this part of Michigan is the province of the middle class. As we drove south, we noticed many small resorts on Crystal Lake and Bear Lake. In the port of Manistee, we walked through the handsome Victorian downtown, all of it on the National Register of Historic Places.

Then we were in Ludington, and it was time to board the S.S. Badger car ferry, a coal-driven behemoth that’s been traversing the lake since 1953. Less than half the size of a Great Lakes ore boat, it’s still massive, and we watched in fascination as the gigantic anchor rattled up on oversized chains and the Badger slipped almost noiselessly out of the Ludington harbor.

At first, we made like cruise-ship passengers, basking on deck chairs in the warm morning sun, but the air grew frigid as we sailed into the middle of the lake, and we fled inside. There we joined the lounging masses, watching movies and playing a game of “Who Wants to Be a Badger Billionaire.’’

Then we saw the candy-striped smokestacks of Manitowoc, and soon our Lake Michigan tour was over. We’ll miss its dunes and beaches, and we’d like to return — of course, we still have three Great Lakes to go.

Trip Tips: Lake Michigan tour

Adjust time zone: About half an hour after crossing the Michigan border at Menominee, you’ll have to set your watches an hour ahead.

When to go: Mid-June and late August are good times to go; the tourist areas are crowded in July and the first half of August. Allow at least a week, more if you want to add a tour of Door County or a side trip to Sault Ste. Marie (only an hour from St. Ignace).

Planning a route: Car ferry times may influence the decision to drive clockwise or counterclockwise: From Ludington, the ferry leaves at 8 a.m. (you’ll be asked to arrive at 7 a.m.), and from Manitowoc, it leaves at 1:15 p.m. And plan around the Straits Area Car Show in late June and Labor Day Bridge Walk,  which fill lodgings within a 50- to 100-mile radius of St. Ignace and Mackinac Island.

Green Bay: Big Bay Amusement Park is open 10 a.m.-9 p.m. daily from Memorial Day weekend to mid-August, then till 6 p.m. through late August, then weekends only through September (get off I-43 at Webster Avenue and head north).

Events include Bayfest, June on the UW-Green Bay campus; Packers training camp, late July to late August (check for details); and Artstreet downtown, late August. 1-888-867-3342, www.packercountry.com.

Peshtigo: The Fire Museum is open  daily in summer and fall, www.pestigofire.info.

Mackinac Island: Three ferry lines leave from St. Ignace and Mackinaw City.  Events include Lilac Festival in June, Independence Day and the Labor Day Bridge Walk. 1-800-454-5227, www.mackinacisland.org.

Admission to Fort Mackinac is $10, $6.25 children 6-17. During the mid-June to late August high season, admission includes five other historic buildings staffed by interpreters.

You can tour the Grand Hotel for $15, $7.50 for children 5-11. The pass can be redeemed at the Grand Luncheon Buffet.

Colonial Michilimackinac: It’s open from early May to early October, but the daily schedule from mid-June to late August includes nonstop re-enactments and demonstrations.  Admission is $10, $6.25 children 6-17. Call 231-436-4100, www.MackinacParks.com.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore: The visitors center is in Empire, behind the Amoco; check for daily programs, which include dune walks, photography excursions and shipwreck-rescue reenactments. Park pass is $10 and is valid for seven days. 231-326-5134, www.nps.gov/slbe.

S.S. Badger Car Ferry: The crossing between Manitowoc and Ludington takes four hours and costs $59, $26 for children 5-15. Vehicles cost $62, motorcycles $32. Reserve at 800-841-4243, www.ssbadger.com.

Lake Express High-Speed Ferry: To make a longer tour, start in Milwaukee or Muskegon and take this ferry across the lake. Crossings take 2½ hours and cost $62, $34.50 for children 5-17. Vehicles cost $72, motorcycles $44.50. Reserve at 866-914-1010, www.lake-express.com.

Where to stay: Mackinac Island and the stretch between Petoskey and Traverse City have many very attractive inns and condos. If you can go in May or June, or even the last week of August, you'll save a lot of money.

If you're wondering, Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel is very expensive. Lake-view rooms start at $255 per person, including breakfast and dinner, plus 19.5 percent service charge, plus 6 percent state tax on top of that, plus $6.50 per person baggage handling, plus the taxi to get there. If you like the bustle of downtown, try the Pontiac Lodge, where rooms start at $85, and the Chippewa Hotel, where rooms start at $95.

Across the strait, in Mackinaw City, the family-oriented Aqua Grand Mackinaw Inn has a beach on Lake Huron and a small indoor water park.

Beautiful state parks line Lake Michigan, making camping a good option. Many parks include rustic cabins, in secluded sites, or mini-cabins on campgrounds, with shower access; some are disabled-accessible.

On the Upper Peninsula, Fayette Historic State Park includes an abandoned Civil War-era smelting town, and Indian Lake State Park in Manistique has a lake beach. In St. Ignace, Straits State Park is nearly in the shadow of the Mackinac Bridge.

Lower Peninsula state parks all have nice beaches and campsites: Petoskey State Park, Fisherman’s Island State Park in Charlevoix, Traverse City State Park right in town, Leelanau State Park on the tip of the peninsula, Orchard Beach near Manistee and Ludington State Park. Reserve as early as possible at 800-447-2757, www.midnrreservations.com.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has campsites near Glen Haven, on South Manitou and North Manitou islands and near the Platte River; some can be reserved, (800) 365-2267.

We also found some nice inns and resorts around Sleeping Bear Dunes. Maple Lane Resort is half a block from Glen Lake, (231) 334-3413.

There are B&Bs in Glen Arbor, the more upscale part of the area, and many cabins, cottages and condos for rent; for a list, call (231) 334-3238, www.sleepingbeararea.com. At the mouth of the Crystal River on Lake Michigan's Sleeping Bear Bay, the Homestead Resort is a large complex of hotels, inns, cottages and condos, plus three restaurants and a deli. There's a spa and schools for golf, fly-fishing and photography.

Other information: Michigan, 1-888-784-7328, www.michigan.org. St. Ignace, 1-800-338-6660, www.stignace.com. Petoskey-Harbor Springs-Boyne City, 1-800-845-2828, www.boynecountry.com. Manistee, 1-877-626-4783, www.visitmanistee.com. Ludington, 1-800-542-4600, www.ludingtoncvb.com. Manitowoc, 1-800-627-4896, www.manitowoc.org.

Last updated on October 21, 2008