Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Let's face it, the National Park Service is making strides in addressing ADA needs, but has a ways to go. One couple that frequently travels to parks is making it easier for disabled travelers to anticipate what their visits will be like through websites that assess individual park's accessibility factors.

Change is under way in the Great Lakes, the source of 84 percent of North America’s fresh water and more than 20 percent of the world’s supply. It is a progressive sweeping change that threatens to greatly transform the ecosystems of these inland seas by warming their waters and supplanting native species with harmful invasives. And it is a change that ultimately may threaten the viability of the common loon and dozens of other birds that depend on the lakes.

Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, which celebrates its 38th birthday October 21, has a dune system to marvel at. One of its major attractions, the Dune Climb, is loads of fun for the young and young at heart. Wear comfortable clothes and get ready to climb, run, jump, and roll. Yahoo!!!

There are parks across the national park system that have decidedly watery settings: Voyagers National Park, Isle Royale National Park, Channel Islands National Park, Acadia National Park, Biscayne National Park and Dry Tortugas National Park, just to name some of the most obvious. And then there are the national lakeshores.