Sleeping Bear Dunes to celebrate MLK Day with free entry
Updated Jan 12, 2021;
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EMPIRE, MICH. Entrance to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will be free for all visitors this coming Monday, January 18, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
The park will be joining 422 other destinations within the National Park Service in waiving entrance fees on that date as part of a nationwide initiative to encourage people to visit national parks across the country.
The holiday is the first of six National Park Service fee-free dates in 2021. The other fee-free dates include April 17 (the first day of National Park Week), August 4 (one-year anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act), August 25 (the National Park Service’s birthday), September 25 (National Public Lands Day), and November 11 (Veterans Day).
This Monday, January 18th, is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It is a federal holiday and some people have the day off. If you are looking for something to do, some national parks have waived their entrance fee for that day.
Thanks to a crew of dedicated volunteers, you can ski, snowshoe or bike the scenic Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail all winter long.
While the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail can be enjoyed year-round, winter is an especially magical time to glide through towering snow-covered trees while soaking in views of the dunes and surrounding national lakeshore. The Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes make that magic possible.
The maintenance and grooming of the trail are managed each year by the Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes to accommodate classic cross-country skiing, skate skiing, snowshoeing and fat tire biking between Glen Arbor and Empire. The crew of 20 volunteers grooms the trail between Forest Haven Road in Glen Arbor to the corner of Voice and Bar Lake roads just north of Empire, for a total distance of 10 miles. (The trail north of Glen Arbor, from Crystal View Trailhead to Port Oneida Road, is not groomed, but is open for backcountry skiing and snowshoeing.)