Last updated: May 25, 2025
Place
Lake Michigan Overlook - Stop #9
NPS credit
Quick Facts
Amenities
5 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto, Parking - Bus/RV, Scenic View/Photo Spot, Toilet - Vault/Composting
Location
The Lake Michigan Overlook is accessed from the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive
Safety
- Although going down the bluff is not prohibited, you are encouraged not to do so for your safety and the safety of others below you.
- Going down the bluff can be dangerous to people below you as you dislodge rocks that roll down the bluff.
- The climb back up is very strenuous. Climbing the bluff also causes significant erosion to the bluff.
Description
This overlook, 450 feet above Lake Michigan, provides a magnificent view of the shoreline. If the visibility is good, to the south you can see Empire Bluffs 4 mi. away and Platte Bay 9 mi. away, both within the 106 square miles area of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Still further south is Point Betsie, the farthest point of land, 15 miles away as the crow flies. To the west, it is 54 miles across the lake to Wisconsin. Lake Michigan is the largest lake completely within the United States and is the fourth largest fresh-water lake in the world. It has had a profound influence on the region, including the formation of the sand dunes.
Accessibility
A paved path through a section of maple-beech forest leads to the approach to Lake Michigan Overlook. This paved trail becomes loose sand before reaching the top of the dune.
Information
The bluff has been eroding at the rate of about a foot per year. Waves wear away the base the bluff and sand and rocks from above slide down to the beach. This process has gone on for many years, so we can infer that this hill once extended much further out into the lake. The shallow waters offshore also seem to indicate that a peninsula once extended from here about 2 miles out into the lake. This means that the site of this overlook used to be inland protected from the strong winds off the lake.