Sterling State Park: Michigan's only state park on Lake Erie

Michigan has more than a hundred state parks, but exactly one of them sits on Lake Erie — and it’s in Frenchtown Township. William C. Sterling State Park puts about 1,300 acres on the shore just northeast of Monroe: a long sandy swimming beach, a modern lakefront campground that books up fast in summer, fishing lagoons, and a paved loop trail where the birding during migration is some of the best in southeast Michigan, thanks to the restored marshes all around.

It also connects to a piece of American history: a trail links the park to the River Raisin National Battlefield Park, one of the country’s newest national park sites, with its new visitor center on North Dixie Highway. Add the warmest swimming water of any Great Lake and one of the busiest walleye fisheries in the country offshore, and Frenchtown’s stretch of coast quietly offers a lot more than most people expect from this corner of the state.