Last updated: September 21, 2024
Place
Sleeping Bear Dune Overlook- Stop #10
NPS Photo/ K. Maisano
Quick Facts
Amenities
3 listed
Audio Description, Benches/Seating, Scenic View/Photo Spot
Located approximately 600 ft from the Lake Michigan Overlook Deck through sand, you will arrive to another viewing platform.
The Sleeping Bear Dune is the large dune, along the edge of the bluff covered in dark green vegetation. From where you stand, it is about 1 mile away from this overlook. It hardly looks like a bear now, for it has been changing rapidly in recent years. At the turn of the century, it was a round knob completely covered with trees and shrubs. The Anishinaabe people use the Bear as a landmark and tell a story to explain its origin.
In western science, the Sleeping Bear Dune is estimated to be about two thousand years old and has a fascinating history. It is classified as a perched dune because it is perched on top of a plateau, high above the lake. When the dune was forming, it was not at the edge of the bluff, but somewhat inland. Wind carried sand from the upper portion of the Lake Michigan bluff inland and deposited it to form the Sleeping Bear Dune. For a long time, the Sleeping Bear Dune stood at about 234 feet high with a dense plant cover. However, through most of the twentieth century, erosion has prevailed.
By 1961, the dune was only 132 feet high, and by 1980, it was down to 103 feet. The process is a continuing one. The major cause of the dune’s erosion was wave action wearing away the base of the plateau on which the dune rests. As the west side of the dune loses its support, it cascades down the hill. The wind, too, is a major agent of erosion, removing sand and destroying the dune’s plant cover.
What does the future hold? It seems that the present trend will continue, and it is only a matter of time until the Bear disappears completely.
The Sleeping Bear Dune is the large dune, along the edge of the bluff covered in dark green vegetation. From where you stand, it is about 1 mile away from this overlook. It hardly looks like a bear now, for it has been changing rapidly in recent years. At the turn of the century, it was a round knob completely covered with trees and shrubs. The Anishinaabe people use the Bear as a landmark and tell a story to explain its origin.
In western science, the Sleeping Bear Dune is estimated to be about two thousand years old and has a fascinating history. It is classified as a perched dune because it is perched on top of a plateau, high above the lake. When the dune was forming, it was not at the edge of the bluff, but somewhat inland. Wind carried sand from the upper portion of the Lake Michigan bluff inland and deposited it to form the Sleeping Bear Dune. For a long time, the Sleeping Bear Dune stood at about 234 feet high with a dense plant cover. However, through most of the twentieth century, erosion has prevailed.
By 1961, the dune was only 132 feet high, and by 1980, it was down to 103 feet. The process is a continuing one. The major cause of the dune’s erosion was wave action wearing away the base of the plateau on which the dune rests. As the west side of the dune loses its support, it cascades down the hill. The wind, too, is a major agent of erosion, removing sand and destroying the dune’s plant cover.
What does the future hold? It seems that the present trend will continue, and it is only a matter of time until the Bear disappears completely.