all photos by Jonathan Schechter

Early this morning (August 17, 2011) ABC News announced Michigan's Sleeping Bear Dunes
National Lakeshore (www.nps.gov/slbe  ) as "The Most Beautiful Place in America"! 
 Congratulations to  our National Park Service for their fine managment of this beautful resource
and a special thanks to the Sleeping Bear Dunes Visitor Bureau  ( www.sleepingbeardunes.com ) for their endless promotion and support of our great NW shore on Lake Michigan.
But most of my thanks are for the glaciers, powerful winds, ice and raw power of nature 
that created this incredible landscape of rugged beauty, streams, meadows, forests and wildlife
habitat, and for the people who love the land and all her inhabitants.
Sleeping Bear Dunes is a four-season wonderland and now her secret is out.