Dunes 450 feet above Lake Michigan, then the last coal-fired steamship in America
KTVC Cherry Capital is the closest airport to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore — sand dunes rising 450 feet above Lake Michigan, the second-most-popular national park unit in the Great Lakes, with the Dune Climb that humbles even runners. Old Mission Peninsula stretches north from the field through 2,500 acres of cherry orchards (Traverse City processes more than 70% of the U.S. tart cherry crop). Forty miles south to KLDM Mason County for Ludington and the SS Badger, the last coal-fired passenger steamship in the United States, still crossing Lake Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in four hours. Twin Great Lakes anchors: dunes from above, working maritime history below.