Lakeshore restores route to Shell Lake

Painting by Hank Feeley

From staff reports

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is restoring an 0.8-mile section of National Park Service-owned dirt track in the Sleeping Bear Dunes Wilderness in the vicinity of Good Harbor. The unnamed route traveled south from West Lake Michigan Road to Shell Lake. Its closure was called for and approved in the National Lakeshore’s publicly reviewed 2009 General Management Plan. The unnamed track lies within the designated wilderness and therefore must be decommissioned and natural conditions restored. Visitor access to Shell Lake continues to be available via nearby Leelanau County-owned Elliott Road, where the National Lakeshore has developed a few parking spots. For more in-depth information about the National Lakeshore, please go to www.nps.gov/slbe.