Robert W. Domm - Lake Michigan Backroads: Your Guide to Wild and Scenic Adventures in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana

The breathtaking scenery of Wisconsins Door Peninsula draws visitors from all over the Midwest.

Whitefish Dunes State Park is one of three beautiful state parks on Wisconsins Door Peninsula.

Your Guide to Wild and Scenic Adventures
in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana

In September and October, the forests around northern Lake Michigan put on one of North Americas best color displays.

T EXT AND P HOTOGRAPHY BY
Robert W. Domm

To my wife, Donna, who helps make my every dream a reality. To my family for their unfailing support and to Don Ward Sr., hoping this book helps him find Lake Michigan.

Leelanau State Park at the tip of Michigans Leelanau Peninsula offers a historic lighthouse, rustic camping, hiking trails, and miles of deserted beach to explore.

The eastern shore of Lake Michigan contains the largest freshwater dune system on earth. This unique ecosystem is home to a variety of plants and animals that are specially adapted to the often harsh conditions found in sand dunes.

Northern Lake Michigan remains largely wild and undeveloped and is a favorite getaway for those seeking to experience nature at its finest.

Sunset illuminates the limestone rock formations along Big Bay de Noc in Michigans Fayette State Park.

One evening, I walked from the campground at Michigans Fayette State Park through a stand of cedar trees and down to the beach. Even though the distance was short, the light was fading quickly in the thicket of trees, so I made mental notes of landmarks along the way to guide me back up to my campsite. Ahead through the trees, the sky above Bay de Noc glowed in the muted pastels of twilight.

The beach at this part of Fayette State Park consists of low shelves of limestone rock, broken into tablets several inches thick and of various sizes like a field of shattered tombstones. A favorite pastime for beachgoers is to use the natural building blocks to construct stone forts, houses, and castles or simply to pile the flat stones as high as they can. I chose a spot with an unobstructed view of Bay de Noc and sat on a natural stone bench facing the water. The stone was warm to the touch, still holding the heat from the fading afternoon sunshine.

As it often does, the lake breeze had diminished with the setting of the sun, and with the calm, the water of the bay had stilled to a murmur of wavelets that quietly splashed on the shore. Sitting in the hushed, warm air, I had the sensation of looking out from the back of an immense auditorium toward a lighted stage on the horizon. Above, the backlit clouds glowed like a painted ceiling, and the black, restless water in front of me rustled like a crowd waiting in the darkness of the theater. Even though I sat in a place that was once home to a bustling nineteenth-century factory, and a campground full of RVs, tents, and trailers was less than a hundred yards behind me, I could sense the vastness and remoteness that is still a part of Lake Michigan.

Wild and isolated places still exist around Lake Michigan. In the heavily urbanized southern part of the lake, the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and Michigans Warren Dunes State Park provide an oasis of nature just a short drive from Chicago and Gary, Indiana. On Lake Michigans eastern shore, state parks near Saugatuck, Silver Lake, Ludington, and Mackinac have preserved pristine dunes and quiet forests. Near Frankfort, Michigan, the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore holds 72,000 acres of wilderness in reserve, protecting wildlife habitat and providing a place to experience truly wild country. Along Lake Michigans northern coast, the towns and villages are separated by miles of undeveloped shoreline and state and national forest land. Lake Michigan and its vast watershed contain many valuable natural resources, but perhaps the most valuable resource is the emotional connection that people have with this unique and beautiful body of water.

The words and pictures found in this book can only begin to illustrate the wonders that lie around the shores of Lake Michigan. In that light, I offer Lake Michigan Backroads as a map from which you may plot your own course of discovery. Beautiful and interesting places abound around the shores of this Great Lake, and each one invites you to explore it with all your senses.

The sun sets on a secluded beach near the Platte River in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

L AKE M ICHIGAN S TATISTICS

The third largest of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan covers 22,400 square miles and contains 1,165 cubic miles of water. The lake is 304 miles long, 118 miles across at its widest point, and 923 feet deep at its deepest. Lake Michigan is the largest freshwater lake to lie entirely within the United States. The lakes main outlet is through the Straits of Mackinac into Lake Huron, and it takes from eighty to one hundred years for the water in Lake Michigan to change over. Including the lakes thirty-nine islands, Lake Michigan contains 1,661 miles of shoreline. In its current configuration, Lake Michigan is about 4,500 years old.

Michigans Manistee National Forest is part of the Huron-Manistee National Forest system that stretches across the states Lower Peninsula from Lake Michigan to Lake Huron.

Michigans Upper Peninsula is home to thousands of large and small lakes, each with its own special character.