"WAS THERE EVER SUCH AN AUTUMN?"

"Was there ever such an autumn? And yet there was never such a panic and hard times in the commercial world. The merchants and banks are suspending and failing all the country over, but not the sandbanks, solid and warm, and streaked with bloody blackberry vines.You may run upon them as much as you please--even as the crickets do, and find their account in it. They are the stockholders in these banks, and I hear them creaking their content. "

~ Henry David Thoreau

(Journal, October 14, 1857)

~ Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive

(Sleeping Bear Dunes)

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Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Large, diverse, and unique, this National Lakeshore is one of the crown jewels of Michigan's natural resources. Here you will find 35 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, including dunes, bluffs, rocky points, and protected bays. North and South Manitou Islands add another 30 miles of shoreline. These remote islands offer pristine backpacking experiences from May through October. Driving the 7.5-mile Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive provides spectacular views of Lake Michigan, shoreline sand dunes, and the surrounding countryside.

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"You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this."

~ Henry David Thoreau