Bluffs, Dunes, and Erosion on Leelanau's Lake Michigan Shore

Leelanau County’s Lake Michigan shoreline is something special — and it’s very much alive. The tall bluffs at Empire, Sleeping Bear, and Pyramid Point aren’t just pretty scenery. They’re ancient glacial moraines — ridges of rock and sand left behind by a retreating glacier — and Lake Michigan’s waves have been slowly wearing them down for about 11,000 years. That process is still going. Higher-water years are tougher on the bluffs.

The scale of it can be surprising. The National Park Service has documented individual landslides at Sleeping Bear Point and Pyramid Point — single events that dropped around a million cubic yards of sand into the lake at once. That’s dramatic natural geology, and a good reminder that shoreline property here sits on an active coast, not a fixed one.

The dunes are moving, too. Beach dunes form close to the waterline as wind pushes sand inland. Perched dunes are the dramatic kind — they sit on top of the glacial headlands, sometimes hundreds of feet above the lake. That’s what gives Sleeping Bear its famous plateau look. At the Dune Climb, the dune has been advancing at about 4 feet a year on average. If you’re eyeing property near the shore anywhere in the county, it’s worth knowing how lively this landscape really is.