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Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive will not open until Memorial Day Weekend
Changes to visitor service due to Sequestration. Due to mandatory, across-the-board budget cuts, some visitor services in this park have changed. Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive will not open until Memorial Day Weekend and will close after Labor Day. More »
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Some restrooms and trash cans not available until Memorial Day
Changes to visitor service due to Sequestration. Other than those at the visitor center and campgrounds, restrooms and trash cans will not be available until Memorial Day Weekend and will close after Labor Day. This includes the Manitou Islands. More »
Wildflowers
Pink lady slipper Search the extensive Wildflowers of Sleeping Bear Dunes database on the web site of the Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes It is a pleasure to go through the seasons with the wildflowers in the park. The earliest blooms in the woodlands include carpets of spring beauty, followed by bouquets of hepatica with samples of bloodroot, and then the yellow of trout lily. One of the earliest in the pine/oak forest is the fragrant trailing arbutus, recumbent and protected from cold with thick, hairy leaves. 
Large-flowered trillium Kerry Kelly 2006 Wetter sites produce the yellow cowslip or marsh marigold. In many places in the park, the forest floor is white with trillium. The green and brown flowers of the Jack-in-the-pulpit blend well with the shaded green of the beech /maple forest. Later in June the dunes are spotted in surprising colors of bright blue harebell, orange dune lily, yellow puccoon and false heather, purple beach pea, and rosy pink of wind anemone. 
Milkweed flower Kerry Kelly 2005 By midsummer the fields will have yellow St. Johnswort, purple cow vetch and milkweed, white pearly everlasting, and orange butterfly milkweed. In the fall, there will be purple asters and yellow goldenrod. By October and into November, in the oak and pine we see the flowering shrub witch Hazel. These yellow blossoms may be seen with snow on them. Lists of flowering plants can be obtained at the visitor center. 
Pitcher's thistle with Sleeping Bear Point in the background. Jocelyn Trepte 2006 Some wildflowers, like this Pitcher's thistle are endangered species and found only in the dunes surrounding the Great Lakes. |
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Did You Know?
There are 21 inland lakes within Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Explore one of these small lakes for a close-up view of some of the birds, mammals, and wildflowers protected there. By the way, the fishing is usually great! More...