Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is open. Just stay off trails, parking lots, picnic areas
Wandering in woods and dunes is allowed: Park “willing to tolerate some impact on natural environment”
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is not closed.
It’s true that popular trails, trailheads, parking lots, boat launches, and hotspots such as Empire Bluffs, the Dune Climb and Pyramid Point are off limits. The Lakeshore announced on April 21 that locations that require staffing and maintenance to re-open will not do so until July 1. Those locations include: Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, D.H. Day Campground, D.H. Day Group Campground. Platte River Campground, White Pine Campground, South Manitou Island campgrounds and operations (including restrooms and lighthouse), North Manitou Island camping and operations (including restrooms), Glen Haven (Cannery Boat Museum, Blacksmith Shop, and D.H. Day Exhibit), and Sleeping Bear Point US Lifesaving Service Station.
BUT wandering the forests, dunes and beaches of the 71,200-acre, 35-mile long National Lakeshore is permitted, provided that you practice social distancing to avoid spreading the coronavirus and that you park on the side of a Leelanau County road or state highway to enter the Park, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore deputy superintendent Tom Ulrich confirmed to the Glen Arbor Sun.
“Typically, we have encouraged visitors to remain on trails and designated areas to protect the environment,” said Ulrich. “Now we’ve turned that on its head. We’ve said that we’re not going to let you crowd together in these places, but other places in the Lakeshore are still available.”
“Park biologists are concerned about how long all of this will go on, and the possibility for natural resource impact. We also have to protect the Park, itself. But we do want to provide a place for people to enjoy. We’re trying to address the human health impact, and we’re willing to tolerate some impact on the natural environment.”
Why July 1?
As for why July 1 for reopening the scenic drive, campgrounds, and the islands—as opposed to, say, June 1 or June 15, Ulrich explained that the National Park Service has encouraged seasonal employees to wait until May 26 before they travel across the country to begin their work. Each spring the Sleeping Bear Dunes National brings aboard approximately 80 seasonal employees. Typically, they arrive in mid-April or early-May. This year the federal government has asked them to wait until late May to give states and communities the chance to flatten the curve and slow the pandemic.
Once those 80 seasonal employees arrive at Sleeping Bear Dunes and move into Park housing, living two to a room in many cases, they will need to self-quarantine for two weeks, according to guidance from national and local public health officials. Sleeping Bear Dunes is following recommendations from the national Centers for Disease Control and also working closely with the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department.
Once their quarantine period ends in mid-June, Ulrich estimates it will take another couple weeks for National Lakeshore staff to reopen the campgrounds, the islands, and Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. Hence an estimated July 1 opening date.
By comparison, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula predicts an opening date of June 25; Isle Royal National Park predicts June 15; Michigan state parks recently announced that they hope to open June 21, with state campgrounds open on June 22. But all those dates are subjective and could be pushed further back, said Ulrich.
“It’s probably going to be July 1 before we can have everything open. But things that don’t take as much work could be open before then,” said Ulrich. Those places include popular trails on the mainland, such as the aforementioned Dune Climb, Pyramid Point and Empire Bluffs. When those spots open depends entirely on how well coronavirus is slowed from spreading within the region and the state, on guidance from the local health department, from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and from the White House.
“Part of the difficulty is a lot of uncertainty about crowds gathering in those places,” said Ulrich. Crowds ignoring social distancing orders prompted the Park last month to close popular trails. “We talked to the local health service and told them about the crowding. We tried to put out education about following public health guidance. Yet it didn’t happen. They said that the level of crowding we were seeing did warrant a closure.”
“We’re Park managers, not public health officers. We’re highly unlikely to go into a crowd of people and say ‘everybody spread out. I’m not going to put our rangers in that position to police individual social distancing. There’s a level of personal responsibility that needs to happen. We were observing people consistently violating public health guidance.”
Ulrich said that reaction from the public about the Park closures and the July 1 announcement has run the gamut from acceptance to frustration.
50th anniversary celebration
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore officially turns 50 years old in October. President Nixon signed legislation on Oct. 21, 1970, that created the Park. Sleeping Bear Dunes had planned a year-long series of events to commemorate the golden anniversary. But many of those events have been canceled or postponed. The Park had initially intended to hold one major event per month through 2020.
“We’ll go ahead and celebrate once we can get large crowds together,” said Ulrich.
Popular events like the Manitou Music Festival’s Sleeping Bear Dune Climb concert in July and the Port Oneida Fair are uncertain to happen. The M22 Challenge, which takes place within the Lakeshore and was scheduled for June 13, has been canceled. A Sleeping Bear Dunes concert at the Dennos Museum in Traverse City, scheduled for this Fall, is also up in the air.
“There’s no time limit on our celebration,” said Ulrich. “Maybe we’ll have our big birthday party during a warm month in 2021.”
This story was sponsored by Market 22
