Big Sable Point: The Striped Giant You Have to Hike To

Rising 112 feet above the dunes of Ludington State Park, Big Sable Point Lighthouse is one of the tallest in Michigan — and you have to earn the view. There’s no driving up to this one: it’s a roughly 1.8-mile walk through sand and jack pines to reach the base of the tower.

Built in 1867, Big Sable marked a genuinely treacherous stretch of Lake Michigan shoreline (a dozen ships wrecked in the area in a single year in the 1850s). Its bold black-and-white daymark — a white tower with a thick black band around the middle — is one of the most striking on the lakes, and it has a practical origin story. The tower was originally built of brick, but Lake Michigan’s relentless weather chewed it up so badly that around 1900 the entire structure had to be wrapped in steel plates to hold it together. The fresh metal sheathing was then painted in the dramatic black-and-white scheme that makes it famous today.

Climb the 130 steps inside and step out onto the catwalk for a sweeping view of the dunes and the open lake. The attached keeper’s quarters now houses a small museum and gift shop, and the whole site is lovingly maintained by a volunteer keepers’ association.