Sleeping Bear Dunes

Also, breakfast here is really a disaster. This morning there was only disposable dishes again, toast, butter and jam, scrambled eggs, and something unidentifiable. The coffee doesn’t really wake you up either.

Shortly before 9:30 a.m., we set off towards Sleeping Bear Dunes. According to the travel guide, the name of the area comes from a legend of the Anishinabe: once, a bear with her two cubs fled from a forest fire into the waters of the lake. The bears swam for their lives, but soon the cubs fell behind their mother. Eventually, the bear reached the other shore and climbed up a dune to look for her cubs, but they had drowned. Over time, the wind covered the waiting mother with sand. The most distinctive point of the dunes, which has largely been eroded by the wind, resembles a sleeping or lookout bear in its shape. Buried under the sand, she is still waiting for the arrival of her cubs. We traveled a 12 km loop through the national park there. You had to pay an entrance fee of $25. But it was really worth it. The big dune was 315 m high. Actually, you’re not supposed to go down from the dune to the water. But during the time we were there, three people did. There were stunning views of the lake and the dunes from the viewpoints.

After the park, we headed toward Empire. A really small village. In Joe's friendly tavern, we had coffee and a light meal. It was really nice there. And it somehow feels like being in the Wild West.

After that, we set off to drive a bit on Route 22. This was recommended to us by CANUSA. But if you don’t make detours from the route, you don’t see anything but trees and deer. Now we are currently sitting on the beach in Frankfort. Wonderful, and we are almost alone. From Frankfort, we went straight back to the hotel, where we rested a bit.

Dinner was at Trattoria Stella in Traverse City. It was very good and cozy at the bar.