Visiting the Sleeping Bears

It wasn't only on our big summer trip that I looked for national park sites--I've done it ever since we bought our pass.  Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore is located to the west of where we were staying in northern Michigan.  Initially I thought of driving over there the day we got to the cabin, but then my cousin told me how long the drive would be and I decided to put it off.  The morning we packed up everything at the cabin it was raining (it was fun to pack up the chair that I'd forgotten and left out the night before). Thankfully by the time we reached the shores of Lake Michigan the skies were mostly clear (as you can see in the picture to the left) even if Amy thought the day a bit chilly.  The main visitor for Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore is located in Empire, Michigan.  We made this our first stop of the day.

Long before there were roads and highways in Michigan, people and goods were being transported regularly on the ships of the Great Lakes. The Manitou Passage (between the Manitou Islands and the mainland) was a busy corridor for commercial shipping. The location of the Manitou Islands made them ideal for a refueling stop for steamers to pick up wood for their boilers. That was one of the driving forces for early settlement of the islands. Docks were built, and trees were cut to fuel the growing Great Lakes Shipping fleet. 

--from NPS Website, Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore history page

The lakeshore is located along the eastern end of Lake Michigan and encompasses several disconnected portions along the shore as well as the Manitou Islands just off-shore.

 Inside you'll find a decent number of displays about the area.

You'll find a larger number of local rocks compared quite helpfully with both actual samples you can touch and useful descriptions.

Quite understandably the fossils are protected under acrylic as they're not quite as easy to replace as the other rocks.

A series of signs explained the theorized history of the area including several of the ancestral lakes that are thought to have formed and disappeared over millennia.  First was Lake Algonquin:

Second was Lake Chippewa:

Then Lake Nipissing:

I was quite jealous of their collection of National Park brochures.  I try to get one from every park we visit, but I haven't been to nearly enough, ;-).

Another display encouraged people to think about what invasive species they might be transporting into areas.  I thought it was quite cleverly done and is something to think about--the board (see below) can be flipped up to reveal the answer to the question.  Though it is important to realized that especially since the Flood wiped all life off the surface of the earth and species have been moving around since then, that some species we consider "native" were once invasive.

Next I rather hurriedly took some pictures of various taxidermic animals as a short video (or slideshow video) presentation was about to begin.  As I've mentioned previously (at the Denver Museum of Science and Nature I really enjoy these displays).

Next time we'll look at the SBDNL Coast Guard Maritime Museum located a few miles away from the visitor center.

~Matt