Interlochen Public Radio
Views like this of Platte Lake, Lake Michigan, and the Sleeping Bear Dunes are the reason the National Park Service has slowly been acquiring land for a scenic road in Benzie County.
If you look at Benzie County on Google Maps, you’ll notice a dark green strip of land about five miles long between Platte Lake and Crystal Lake.
That’s where a long-proposed scenic road would run – between U.S. Highway 31 and M-22 – taking people from Beulah into Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
The land is mostly dense hardwood forest and it s extremely hilly.
“This is almost a 90-degree descent here we’re going to go down here, so we may want to keep our hands free,” says Andy Norman, a retiree of Michigan State University Extension who lives nearby.
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That’s where a long-proposed scenic road would run – between U.S. Highway 31 and M-22 – taking people from Beulah into Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
The land is mostly dense hardwood forest and it s extremely hilly.
“This is almost a 90-degree descent here we’re going to go down here, so we may want to keep our hands free,” says Andy Norman, a retiree of Michigan State University Extension who lives nearby.
Andy Norman lives near the proposed Benzie Scenic Road. Much of the land consists of hilly, dense hardwood forest.
Credit Dan Wanschura / Interlochen Public Radio
After about three-to-four miles of rigorous hiking, he peaks a ridge and scans the horizon.