Sleeping Bear Dunes

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is the crown jewel of Leelanau County — and one of the most beautiful places in the country. In fact, viewers of Good Morning America voted it exactly that, “the Most Beautiful Place in America,” back in 2011. It protects about 35 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline (shared with neighboring Benzie County), along with two offshore islands and a string of inland lakes.

The star is the dunes themselves — towering “perched” dunes that sit atop bluffs rising some 450 feet above the water, left behind by glaciers. The famous Dune Climb sends visitors scrambling up the sand, and the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive winds past overlooks with sweeping views of the lake and of clear, turquoise Glen Lake below. The villages and hamlets at the edge of the park — Empire, with the main visitor center, and Glen Arbor, tucked between the dunes and Glen Lake — are the gateways, along with historic Glen Haven on the shore. A paved trail, the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, threads through it all.

For buyers, this is a special and limited market. Land inside the National Lakeshore is federally protected and not for sale, which makes the private property near the park — in Empire, Glen Arbor, and around Glen Lake — especially scarce and sought-after. Glen Lake frontage in particular is some of the most prized in northern Michigan. Homes here are on wells and septic (see the well-and-septic note).