Oval Beach, a hand-cranked ferry, and the big dunes

Saugatuck’s beaches and dunes are the other half of its fame. Oval Beach, on Lake Michigan, has been ranked by Condé Nast Traveler as one of the best beaches in the world. It’s a wide stretch of soft sand backed by tall dunes. To get there from downtown the fun way, ride the Saugatuck chain ferry across the Kalamazoo River. It’s believed to be the last hand-cranked chain ferry in the country, pulled across by an operator turning a wheel. On the far side rises Mount Baldhead, a giant dune with a stairway of more than 300 steps. From the top you get a big view over the water.

Just north of town, Saugatuck Dunes State Park protects about a thousand acres of towering, forested dunes. It also holds a couple of miles of quiet Lake Michigan shoreline. There are hiking trails but no road right to the beach — so it stays peaceful. And for a faster thrill, the open-air dune rides will run you up and over the sand hills. Along the way a guide tells stories about the area, including the buried town of Singapore.

Oval Beach and the chain ferry sit right in the city of Saugatuck. The state park is a few minutes north at 6575 138th Avenue. Your car needs a Recreation Passport on the windshield to park there. Singapore itself you won’t find on any map. The lumber boom that fed it stripped the dunes bare. The sand drifted in, and the whole town vanished under it sometime in the 1870s.