Grand Mere: three hidden lakes behind the dunes

Just south of Stevensville, behind the first wall of Lake Michigan dunes, lie three quiet lakes that most beach traffic on I-94 never suspects: North, Middle, and South Grand Mere lakes, glacial basins sheltered behind the sand. The setting is such a textbook example of dune-and-swale ecology — each lake a different stage in the slow march from open water to forest — that the federal government designated Grand Mere a National Natural Landmark back in 1968, before it was even a state park.

It became one in the 1970s, largely because Stevensville-area residents fought to keep it wild, and wild it stays: about 1,100 acres with no campground, no concessions, and a half-mile walk through the dunes to an undeveloped stretch of Lake Michigan beach that regulars guard like a family secret. For Lincoln Township homeowners it’s the nature-fix counterpart to busy Warren Dunes down the shore — birdsong, boardwalk, big water, and hardly anyone else on a weekday morning.