Lakeshore Visitor Center to Close on Holidays

Date: December 10, 2007
Contact: Lisa Myers, 231-326-5134

Dusty Shultz, Superintendent of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshoreannounced that the Visitor Center in Empire will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, December 24 and 25, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and on Tuesday, January 1, New Year’s Day.

Except for these holidays, the Visitor Center is open daily from 8:15 a.m. to 4:00 a.m.  Superintendent Shultz would like to remind everyone that winter is a great time to enjoy the Lakeshore.  Visitors may be rewarded with a new perspective on the landscape.  Beaches, with strange ice formations, are shaped before your eyes by winter storms that have been known to uncover long buried treasures.  The dunes are easier to hike in the winter and there might even be enough snow to sled down the Dune Climb.  Fresh snows are also great for discovering animal tracks while you are out walking, cross-country skiing or snowshoeing.  Even when the Visitor Center is closed, the rest of the park is still open and accessible for all to enjoy and experience the wonders of winter.

If you are looking for last minute holiday gifts, the Lakeshore Visitor Center is stocked full of books about local history, nature guides, puzzles, prints, children’s books, and Sleeping Bear Dunes t-shirts, sweatshirts, pins, patches and key chains.  Why not surprise someone on your list with an annual park pass to the Dunes?  For just $20, the pass covers the entrance fee for everyone in the vehicle to the National Lakeshore beaches from Platte Point to Good Harbor Bay, the Dune Climb, Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, the historic village of Glen Haven, 100+ miles of trails on the mainland, and the Manitou Islands.  The pass is valid for one year from date of purchase. 

For more information on Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, please call park headquarters at 231-326-5134.