Sleeping Bear Dunes Voted 'Most Beautiful Place in America'

ABC News/Travel ^ | 8/17/2011 | ALBERTO ORSO and SABRINA PARISE

[opentalk]

Good post,

No Disney world, A few other great trips, Alaska (amazing!), The CA Redwoods and Avenue of Giants, Hiking in Hocking Hills OH, then there is the sleepy bear Dunes Mi, Beautiful./p>

[KC Burke]

Here's the view outside my cove. A little more boat traffic.

[netmilsmom]

Pictured Rocks?

That’s my choice. But that picture doesn’t do it justice. The water was Emerald green from the copper content when I was there this summer. I’ve NEVER seen anything so beautiful.

[Hot Tabasco]

Nice State and very underrated except for a crappy football team in Ann Arbo

Am I, as an Ohioan, allowed to say that?

If you're bringing football into the equation, then perhaps you should ask OSU coach Tressel......oh wait...

[CharacterCounts]

Since U of M ended their football program, Ohio is a now a friendly neighbor state.

Blasphemy!

[cripplecreek]

I took that with my cheap camera a few years back and I need to return to get some pics with my good camera.

Kitchi-iti-ki-pi Spring is another interesting little curiosity near Manistique.

[Hot Tabasco]

I would disagree with the article only because the entire Lake Michigan shoreline is beyond compare. I grew up on Lake Charlevoix and to me that was the most beautiful inland lake in the country, if not the world. Clear, cold, deep and spring and river fed with magnificent fishing and miles long between Boyne City and Charlevoix.

Add to that a countryside ripe with both small game hunting and deer throughout the fall and winter and nearby skiing............

As a young kid, it was a paradise for me. I could go on and on, especially about watching the summer rain storms or the winter snow squalls coming down the lake from Charlevoix......

[Darksheare]

Rub it in why doncha sharkey?

[SunkenCiv]

The snoring is a bit much.

[dragonblustar]

I'm partial to Alaska even thought I was born in Michigan.

[aruanan]

I’ve been there. It’s beautiful. But there are any number of places in Colorado alone that are more beautiful than Sleeping Bear Dunes.

[TheRake]

Are you ignorant about Michigan? Not sure how much more “free” you are in Texas. I can carry if I choose. Taxes could be much better, but not the worse. I live very free on lake front property in the northern suburbs of Detroit. 700 inland lakes in Oakland county. Great boating, fishing etc. All this without the Gestapo you may be envisioning. Everyone thinks Michigan is “Detroit”. Couldn’t be further from the truth. Now the winters....

[onyx]

Very nice of you to remember me by post #37!

BEAUTIFUL PLACE! I would love to visit someday soon!

[Azzurri]

And, here's a nice panoramic of Sleeping Bear Dunes

[Troublemaker]

hwy 287 along Hebgen Lake

[grellis]

I grew up in Oakland County, lived there until I married at 21 and have been in Lansing since '93. At first I missed the lakes tremendously (up here they're virtually all manmade, just not the same) but in the last 20 years I have fallen in love with our rivers. The Grand, Red Cedar, Looking Glass, Sycamore, Maple--all incredibly beautiful, and most with outstanding hiking trails alongside--not to mention the boating and fishing opportunities.

Outside of Detroit and Flint the whole state is one gem after another.

[tpmintx]

Are you ignorant about Michigan?

Not at all. Rural MI is very nice. You're just stuck with Detroit voters ruining your statewide elections.

East Lansing, on the other hand, has some major league drunks in the stands during football games.

Carry?

Texas pretty much invented Concealed Carry in the modern era.

[ErnBatavia]

I like the name, though.

Another spot we discovered last month also has a great name: "Ten Sleep Canyon" in Wyoming. We'd just driven through Yellowstone (Ten Sleep is 'tween there and Cody) and this beat the hell out of the national park, visually.

[Utah Binger]

Quake Lake. We have been there. Wife and her family were camped near there during the 59 earthquake. She spent two days at Ennis High School until they were able to leave.

I thought I recognized that. We were there two years ago.

[Dixie Yooper]

Years ago when I was about 20, I climbed to the top of sand dune south of South Haven. When it was time to go back down, I started bounding downward covering about 30 feet with each step. Somehow I was able to stop before I reached the bottom. It was an incredible feeling, but I’ve never done it since. Now I’m too old (54) to do something that stupid.