Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive at Michigan's Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Pierce Stocking learned to appreciate the beauty of the Sleeping Bear Dunes as a young lumberjack in northern Michigan. The self-taught naturalist's desire to share the wonders of the shifting dune landscape with its sweeping views of sites like Lake Michigan, Glen Lake, and the Manitou Islands inspired him to build a scenic drive that today bears his name.

The 7.5 mile Pierce Stocking Scenic drive loops through the dune area and includes several especially breath-taking scenic overlooks. This drive is the most accessible way to park and see a lot of these views without walking long distances, making it an ideal way to tour the area with young children or others who cannot walk long distances or who have mobility issues.

Stocking's background as a lumberjack gave him an expertise in building roads through difficult terrain. He began planning the process of building a road to allow others to share in the beauty he saw as he walked along the top of the bluffs during the early 1960s. The completed road opened to the public in 1967, and Stocking operated the scenic drive until his death in 1976.

Stocking's road became part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in 1977. Public opinion strongly supported naming the road for him, so it officially became the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive several years after the visionary lumberman's death.

You can just drive the road in a few minutes, but a series of overlooks and other designated stops along the route allow visitors to learn about the area's history, see the diverse vegetation in the park, learn how the landscape changed over the years, and take in some great views.

Maps for the self-guided tour of Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive are often available at the road's entrance, but it may be best to stop at the park's visitor center in Empire to pick up a map as they seem less likely to run out of the brochures during the busy summer season. You can also purchase the park pass required to drive the route at the visitors' center.

The road opens from 9 a.m. until a half hour after sunset, and closes pretty much entirely from late autumn through mid-spring. A 20 m.p.h. speed limit encourages drivers to slow down and enjoy the scenery. You can ride your bicycle along the route, but extremely steep grades, sharp turns, and sometimes heavy traffic make that something only the most experienced bicyclists should attempt.

One of the observation decks along the route sits 450 feet above Lake Michigan and atop a steep, steep bluff created by a mix of rocks and sand deposited long ago by melting glaciers.

The temptation to descend this dune is apparently too much for some visitors, in spite of the danger posed by the steepness of the slope and increasing concerns about erosion in the area. The scenic drive attracts over 200,000 visitors each year, and while a recent environmental assessment of the overlooks found no significant impact on the area, officials plant to more carefully monitor bluff and dune climbing activity with an eye toward safety and preventing future damage to the environment.

Stops along the way include two picnic areas and a covered bridge with a turn out where you can park and take photos.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Things To Do
Empire

Comments

[Heather on her travels]

That's a beautiful drive but I think I'd be more tempted to stop the car and run into the ocean

[Dominique King]

Heather-That's Lake Michigan, not quite an ocean, but a freshwater lake worthy of being one of the five "Great Lakes" IMHO :)
Going on down into Empire to the public beach, or on out to the lighthouse at Point Betsie (both of which I've visited many times and written about here) are probably among the best ways to get out into the lake.

[Tina]

If we would like to take this scenic tour would we just go to Sleeping bear dunes and then we can get a map from there to go throught this tour? Do you think it will be open by April 20th?

Thanks

[Dominique King]

Hi Tina-

The best place to find information about the scenic drive is on the Sleeping Bear Dunes' National Park page, which says the scenic drive is "open mid-April to mid-November, 9:00 a.m. to 30 minutes after sunset". The site also tells visitors to "pick up an interpretive guide for the Scenic Drive at the Visitor Center in Empire or at the entrance to the drive (there is no charge for the guide)".

http://www.nps.gov/slbe/planyourvisit/psscenicdrive.htm
http://www.nps.gov/slbe/planyourvisit/hours.htm

[Dominique King]

Also, here's a story I wrote about the Sleeping Bear Dunes' visitor center in Empire.
http://www.midwestguest.com/2010/03/phillip-a-hart-visitor-center-at-sleeping-bear-dunes-national-lakeshore.html

Hope you have a great trip, Tina!