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Places to go in Michigan.

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4 places

Isle Royale National Park Lakes & rivers

Isle Royale National Park

Houghton, MI · Lake Superior, Upper Peninsula

Isle Royale National Park is a remote, roadless archipelago in far western Lake Superior, reachable only by ferry or seaplane and almost entirely designated wilderness. Backpackers trace ridgeline trails like the Greenstone past inland lakes while paddlers thread the rocky coves of Rock Harbor. The island anchors the longest-running predator-prey study on Earth, tracking its wolves and moose since 1958.

Sleeping Bear Dunes Beaches

Sleeping Bear Dunes

Empire / Glen Arbor, MI · Lake Michigan

This is the rare beach where you arrive by climbing: perched dunes rise 450 feet straight off the water, and from the Lake Michigan Overlook the shoreline drops away in a single dizzying sweep of sand into water that runs from pale turquoise to deep open-lake blue. Down at the bottom the beaches are wide, quiet, and freshwater-cold, with the Manitou Islands floating on the horizon and a 35-mile stretch of Lake Michigan coast to wander. Come for the dune climb and the overlook, stay for the kind of Great Lakes shoreline that makes people forget they are nowhere near an ocean.

Pictured Rocks / Twelvemile Beach Beaches

Pictured Rocks / Twelvemile Beach

Munising, Upper Peninsula, MI · Lake Superior

Twelvemile Beach earns its name with a single golden sweep of sand running unbroken along Lake Superior, backed by a wall of white birch and pine instead of parking lots or condos. The water stays clear and cold enough to keep the crowds thin, so most days you share the shoreline with a handful of hikers off the North Country Trail and the occasional bald eagle. Sleep in the bluff-top campground, walk down the stairs at dawn, and the whole horizon is yours before the sun clears the trees.

Tahquamenon Falls Lakes & rivers

Tahquamenon Falls

Paradise, MI · Eastern Upper Peninsula, Michigan

Tahquamenon Falls runs the color of root beer, its water stained amber by tannins leached from the cedar swamps upstream. The Upper Falls is the headline act, a single drop of about 48 feet spread more than 200 feet wide, one of the largest waterfalls by volume east of the Mississippi. In late spring runoff the river can push 50,000 gallons a second over the lip. Four miles downstream, the Lower Falls breaks into five smaller cascades wrapped around an island you reach by rented rowboat or by wading in summer. A paved path and a stairway of 94 steps drop you to the Upper Falls viewing decks, close enough to feel the spray. Come in early May for peak flow or in October when the surrounding hardwoods turn. The park sits near Paradise in the eastern Upper Peninsula. A Recreation Passport is required for vehicle entry.