Michigan

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. It hugs the northeast shore of Lake Michigan and includes South and North Manitou islands. The park is known for the huge scalable dunes of the Dune Climb. Beaches include Platte River Point, where the river flows into the lake. The Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail winds through forests and the Port Oneida area with its 19th-century farmsteads.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore hugs the south shore of Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It's known for the dramatic multicolored Pictured Rocks cliffs. Unusual sandstone formations like Miners Castle and Chapel Rock define the park’s headlands. Twelvemile Beach has a trail through a nearby white birch forest. Remnants of shipwrecks dot the shoreline around Au Sable Point’s 19th-century lighthouse.

Rennie Orchards

Rennie Orchards–one of a very few family farms in northern Michigan. Because the farm is situated off of Angell Road and atop an area with panoramic views, it was affectionately nicknamed Angell Plateau by my Father years ago.

Mackinac Island

Mackinac Island sits in Lake Huron, between Michigan’s Upper and Lower peninsulas. Mackinac Island State Park, with trails, woods and the limestone Arch Rock formation, covers most of the island. Founded in 1780, Fort Mackinac is a walled cluster of military buildings on a coastal bluff. The Richard and Jane Manoogian Mackinac Art Museum has local works, including Native American art, maps and 19th-century photos.