Cherry Blossom time: 7 stunning drives along the Traverse Wine Coast
Updated May 04, 2021;
Posted May 04, 2021
Cherry blossom season is a great time to take a road trip around the Traverse City area. Photo provided by Traverse City Tourism.
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TRAVERSE CITY, MI - Embraced by the waters of Grand Traverse Bay and Lake Michigan, the Leelanau and Old Mission peninsulas are a feast for the eyes in any season. But during Blossom Time - those few weeks in the spring when the Traverse City area’s multitude of cherry trees burst forth with their soft, bridal-veil like petals - the already picturesque orchards, fields and farms are transformed.
Interlochen Public Radio
Views like this of Platte Lake, Lake Michigan, and the Sleeping Bear Dunes are the reason the National Park Service has slowly been acquiring land for a scenic road in Benzie County.
If you look at Benzie County on Google Maps, you’ll notice a dark green strip of land about five miles long between Platte Lake and Crystal Lake.
That’s where a long-proposed scenic road would run – between U.S. Highway 31 and M-22 – taking people from Beulah into Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
The land is mostly dense hardwood forest and it s extremely hilly.
“This is almost a 90-degree descent here we’re going to go down here, so we may want to keep our hands free,” says Andy Norman, a retiree of Michigan State University Extension who lives nearby.
Sleeping Bear Dunes’ new guided hiking tours offer rare peek into the park’s wilderness areas
Updated Apr 29, 2021;
Posted Apr 29, 2021
The new guided tours from Sleeping Bear Tour Co. will take individuals and small groups into the park s rarely seen wilderness areas. | Photo by Sleeping Bear Tour Co., used with permission
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HONOR, MICH. This might be the year you’ll get to see a side of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore that you’ve never seen before.
National Park Service officials recently approved Sleeping Bear Tour Co. to start offering small personal tours into the park’s wilderness areas. The company, founded and led by former Sleeping Bear Dunes park ranger Julie Den Uyl, is the first commercial operator in the park’s history to be granted the permits necessary for accessing these highly regulated, seldom-trafficked areas.
How to vote for Michigan’s Best Vacation Spot
Updated 2:05 PM;
Today 2:05 PM
Michiganders enjoy Lake Michigan during a recent heat wave at Pere Marquette Park in Muskegon, Michigan on Tuesday, July 7, 2020. Alison Zywicki | azywicki@mlive.com
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Northern Lower Peninsula?
And along the Lake Michigan shoreline? Thumb?
We have a total of eight regional polls in our search for Michigan’s Best Vacation Spot, and we want you to vote for your favorites. The deadline to vote in our polls is 11:59 p.m. Friday, April 30.
As always in our Michigan’s Best polls, you can vote once every three hours, per email address.
6:02
That’s where a long-proposed scenic road would run – between U.S. Highway 31 and M-22 – taking people from Beulah into Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
The land is mostly dense hardwood forest and it s extremely hilly.
“This is almost a 90-degree descent here we’re going to go down here, so we may want to keep our hands free,” says Andy Norman, a retiree of Michigan State University Extension who lives nearby.
Andy Norman lives near the proposed Benzie Scenic Road. Much of the land consists of hilly, dense hardwood forest.
Credit Dan Wanschura / Interlochen Public Radio
After about three-to-four miles of rigorous hiking, he peaks a ridge and scans the horizon.