Tim Mulherin’s July 15 photo shows a great blue heron during a smoky day at Arcadia Marsh in Manistee County.
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
The numbers tell a clear story.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore attracted its lowest number of visitors for the month of July since 2010—the year before the Good Morning America TV show crowned our National Park as the “most beautiful place in America” and putting it squarely on the tourism map.
Typically the most popular month of the summer, July 2026 saw 382,396 visitors—the first time in 16 years that visitation numbers dipped below 400,000.
High
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