-
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 »
-
Maritime Museum closed
The Maritime Museum and Boathouse are closed until further notice.
Glen Lake Overlook
|
Glen Lake, with its remarkably blue waters, is famous for its beauty. The lake appears divided into two parts by the constriction at the “narrows” bridge. The two parts are Little Glen Lake in the foreground, only 12 feet deep, and Big Glen Lake, beyond the M-22 bridge, about 130 feet deep. Glen Lake used to be connected to ancestral Lake Michigan. Glacial erosion carved out both lakes during the Ice Age. In post-glacial times, a sand- bar developed, separating Glen Lake from Lake Michigan. Both the D.H. Day Campground and the village of Glen Arbor are located on that sandbar. The flat terrain and proximity to Lake Michigan made it a desirable site for these developments. The Hill on the north (left) side of Little Glen Lake is called Alligator Hill because of its shape. It is a product of the Ice Age and early post-glacial times. Glaciers carried a tremendous load of sand, gravel and other rock debris frozen in the ice. When the ice melted, the run-off streams deposited great piles of sediment to form the hill. Imagine how thick the ice must have been to have left hills of debris several hundred feet high. The “snout” of the alligator is a wave-cut terrace of a lake that occupied the Glen Lake basin briefly during deglaciation. 
Glen Lake Overlook from Pierce Stocking Drive
Kerry Kelly 2005
|
Did You Know?
You can hunt for deer in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. In fact there are special hunts on North Manitou Island to help manage the size of the deer herd on the island. More...