Empire Bluff Trail - South Bar Lake View

Take in the stunning view of South Bar Lake and Lake Michigan and the Sleeping Bear Dune.

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Scenic View/Photo Spot

About .5 miles from the Empire Bluffs trailhead is a bench marking the South Bar Lake overlook. From here, you can take in the stunning view towards the north from which you can see South Bar Lake and the sweep of Lake Michigan's Platte Bay all the way to the Sleeping Bear Dune.

A bar lake is formed when winds and currents build a sandbar across a bay, isolating that bay from the larger lake. Declining lake levels can, and in this case did, greatly accelerate this process. As vegetation takes hold, the exposed sandbar traps more sediments and decaying vegetation starts to build up soil, further heightening and stabilizing the barrier between parent and daughter lake.

To the north of South Bar Lake is the equally imaginatively named North Bar Lake, a popular spot for wading and swimming.