Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore breaks record for May visitors

From staff reports

More than 110,000 visitors flocked to Sleeping Bear Dunes last month—a new May record. The exact number was 110,460 visitors.

The previous May high was 100,289, set in 2016.

The National Lakeshore has attracted 237,257 visitors through the first five months of 2021. That’s nearly 90,000 more than the first five months of 2020, when Sleeping Bear set a record for annual visitation with more than 1.7 million guests.

“We are seeing truly unprecedented visitation,” Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore deputy superintendent Tom Ulrich told the Glen Arbor Sun earlier this spring. “All indications are for another record year.”

An early end to a mild winter, warm Spring temperatures, receding Lake Michigan water levels down one foot from their 2020 high, and the continuing pandemic all support Ulrich’s prediction.