Region
Traverse country & the northwest coast
The northwest Lower Peninsula: two grand bays, the Sleeping Bear dunes, wine peninsulas, and the small towns that fill every July. This is the Michigan on the postcards — and it has an off-season the regulars guard jealously.
The places
Traverse City
The capital of the north: cherries, a film festival, and two bays to choose from.
Open the place page →Leland
Historic Fishtown's shanties and the ferry to the Manitou islands.
Open the place page →Glen Arbor
Inside Sleeping Bear country — dunes on one side, Glen Lake on the other.
Open the place page →Empire
The quiet village at the Lakeshore's front door.
Open the place page →Suttons Bay
Leelanau's harbor village among the vineyards.
Open the place page →Elk Rapids
A chain-of-lakes harbor town between Torch Lake and the bay.
Open the place page →Charlevoix
The drawbridge town between two lakes, with mushroom houses and the Beaver Island ferry.
Open the place page →Petoskey
Gaslight-district storefronts, Hemingway summers, and the state stone's namesake shore.
Open the place page →Harbor Springs
The deep little harbor across the bay, at the foot of the Tunnel of Trees.
Open the place page →Boyne City
Lake Charlevoix's working end, with ski hills up the road.
Open the place page →Frankfort
Benzie County's harbor town under the bluffs, south of the dunes.
Open the place page →Browse by county
Every city, township, and village in this corner is reachable through its county page.
Notes from this corner
The small stories and useful rules tied to this part of the state.
Sleeping Bear Dunes
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore protects Leelanau's dunes, Glen Lake gateways, trails, and scarce private property near the park.
Read the note →Leland, Fishtown, and the Manitou Islands
Leland, Fishtown, Lake Leelanau, and the Manitou Island ferry anchor the historic Lake Michigan side of the Leelanau Peninsula.
Read the note →Beaver Island and Its Self-Crowned King
In the 1850s the largest island in Lake Michigan was ruled by an actual crowned king — until his violent end and the gunpoint expulsion that followed.
Read the note →The Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail
The only bike trail in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore — about 22 miles of mostly paved path through rolling hills, dunes, and forest, open to cyclists, walkers, and winter skiers.
Read the note →Heading up north? The porch kit
Where to next
See the other corners at Explore Michigan, search every town in the place directory, or start with why Michigan is worth the paperwork.