Sleeping Bear Dunes and Mushroom Houses

September 7, 2017

Sleeping Bear Dunes and Mushroom Houses

We left Traverse City on this gloomy day to head to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore along the east coast of Lake Michigan, a place Robin had been talking about wanting to see for several weeks before we left Richmond.  Of course, we expected being there in the sunshine.  As we pulled into the parking area of the Point Betsie Lighthouse, just south of the park, the rains came down.  Instead of climbing over and exploring the dunes, I got out with my polka-dotted umbrella to take a few pictures.  Robin had a waterproof, hooded jacket and was more adventurous—now why didn’t I think of that?!

Rain - but with hope in the distance

Lake Michigan

Point Betsie Lighthouse

Lake Michigan dune

The sand dunes along this coast are massive and lovely to see—even in the rain.  Indian legend has it that a mother bear and her two cubs fled Wisconsin because of famine (some legends say they fled forest fires) to swim across Lake Michigan.  Bears apparently are strong swimmers and the cubs almost made it to the Michigan coast when the mother bear watched her two cubs sink into the lake and drown. She made it to shore and was so sad that she went ashore and slept facing the water where she lost her cubs. While she gazed at the spots where the cubs drowned, two islands rose up to mark their graves and then a solitary dune rose up to represent the mother bear—a dune that has a striking resemblance to a sleeping bear.

A Sleeping Bear?

The National Lakeshore covers a lot of coastline on the Leelanau Peninsula, preserving 71,000 acres of natural habitat. We drove through small villages and had lunch at Joe’s Friendly Tavern in the tiny town of Empire.  No vegetables there. 

Joe's Friendly Tavern - est 1946 with GI Bill money

At one point, we were deciding which road to take next, and Robin pulled into an empty parking lot to look at the map on the park brochure.  We were sitting in front of Compass Rose Bakery with a closed sign on its door.  In a few minutes, a friendly guy named Peter, the baker, showed up at our window and offered to help.  We had a chat with him and ended up going into the bake shop and coming away with less cash and a bag of goodies.  We love meeting the locals that way.

 

We made our way out of the park and drove northwest to Charlevoix, MI.  We had heard from a friend about some “mushroom houses” there; however, it was too late for a tour, so we had a little self-directed tour of our own.  The story is that back in the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s, a builder named Earl Young built over two dozen houses made mostly of stones that he found in northern MI.  Each house is different and was designed to fit into its surrounding landscape.  These houses have wide, wavy eaves, cedar shake roofs, and many look like mushrooms.  They are also known as “Gnome Homes” or “Hobbit Houses.”  What fun it was to explore this charming town along the water on our way even further north.  

Entrance to Pine River in Carlevoix, MI

 

Our goal was to get to Mackinaw City to spend the night so we could cross the Mackinac Bridge tomorrow in the daylight.  Thus, we drove on an unmarked, two-lane highway with reflective barrels on both sides of the road through the rain in the dark.  We are looking forward to getting to the Upper Peninsula (UP) tomorrow—up to the north woods and the lake of all lakes—Superior.