Glen Arbor, Glen Haven, and Sleeping Bear Dunes

Glen Arbor sits where M-22 meets the M-109 loop. That road carries you through Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, past the Dune Climb, Glen Haven, and the D.H. Day Campground. The dunes are hard to miss. Bluffs rise 450 feet above Lake Michigan. The park’s story runs from old Life-Saving Service stations and coastal villages to quiet farmsteads.

Glen Haven, inside the park, holds a piece of that history. D.H. Day’s general store was once the nerve center of the place. At different times it served as a post office, telegraph station, steamship ticket office, lumber salesroom, real estate office, and U.S. weather station. Workers were paid in company scrip — good only at that store. An inn nearby got new fireplaces and indoor bathrooms in a 1928 renovation. That kept it open for guests long after the lumber and steamship trades faded. The inn finally closed in 1972. The blacksmith shop, built around 1867, had already shut down decades earlier when those same industries slowed.

Today, several of Glen Haven’s historic buildings are open to visit inside the park. In summer, a BATA bus runs from Traverse City to Glen Arbor, the Dune Climb, and Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. It fits up to 11 bikes — a nice way to spend a day in the dunes without moving the car.