The Tip of the Mitt Loop

Michigan's two most celebrated scenic drives sit about ninety minutes apart at the top of the Lower Peninsula, and nothing obliges a traveler to choose between them. Linking M-22 around the Leelanau Peninsula with M-119's Tunnel of Trees north of Harbor Springs — connected by US-31 through Charlevoix and Petoskey — produces a loop that covers the best road mileage in the state in a single trip. This is a route assembled rather than designated, and it is the itinerary to recommend to anyone with three or four days and a desire to see why northern Michigan has the reputation it does.

Leg One: M-22 Around Leelanau

Start at Traverse City and run north on M-22 along Grand Traverse Bay through Suttons Bay, Peshawbestown, and Omena to Northport at the peninsula's tip, then south down the Lake Michigan side to Leland. Fishtown there is a National Historic District of weathered fishing shanties standing on pilings over the Leland River, now holding smoked fish shops and galleries — the most photographed scene on the peninsula.

Continuing south, the byway turns onto M-109 at Glen Arbor to run through Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, where the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive delivers the Lake Michigan Overlook standing 450 feet directly above the water. Rejoin M-22 at Empire. A traveler could spend the entire trip on this leg alone and not feel short-changed.

Leg Two: The Wine Peninsulas

Back at Traverse City, the Old Mission Peninsula runs eighteen miles north on M-37 with water visible on both sides from the ridge and roughly ten wineries along its length, finishing at the 1870 Mission Point Lighthouse. Together with the Leelanau wineries just driven past, the two peninsulas hold more than forty wineries and grow the majority of Michigan's wine grapes.

This is the loop's natural pause. Old Mission is compact enough to work in an afternoon, and treating it as a half-day between the two big scenic legs breaks up the driving sensibly. The 45th parallel markers along M-37 are worth a photograph, with the caveat that the actual parallel lies a few hundred feet north of the peninsula's tip.

Leg Three: US-31 to Petoskey

From Traverse City, US-31 runs northeast toward Charlevoix and Petoskey. Charlevoix holds Earl Young's mushroom houses — roughly thirty stone homes built between 1918 and the 1950s with undulating walls and cedar-shake roofs, viewable from the sidewalk since they remain private residences — and sits at the outlet of Lake Charlevoix, Michigan's third-largest inland lake.

Petoskey follows on Little Traverse Bay, with the Gaslight District's 170-plus shops, the 23-mile Little Traverse Wheelway along the water, and the beaches where Michigan's state stone is found. Petoskey stones are fossilized coral over 350 million years old, and the pattern only shows when the stone is wet — which is why experienced hunters work the waterline. Magnus Park is the best hunting ground in the area.

Leg Four: The Tunnel of Trees

From Harbor Springs, M-119 runs about twenty miles north to Cross Village as the Tunnel of Trees — the only state highway in Michigan with no painted centerline, because it is too narrow to divide. It follows an old Ottawa trail along a Lake Michigan bluff through a canopy that closes overhead for miles, and it is emphatically unsuitable for RVs or trailers.

Drive it northbound; the lake views open up more consistently in that direction. Stops along the way include the Woolam Family Nature Preserve with roughly four thousand feet of Lake Michigan beach, the Good Hart General Store, and the tiny settlement of Middle Village along the way. At Cross Village the road ends at Legs Inn, built through the 1930s by Polish immigrant Stanley Smolak with Odawa labor and craftsmanship, its roofline trimmed in inverted cast-iron stove legs.

Closing the Loop

From Cross Village, continue north to the Straits and Mackinaw City to finish at the bridge, or turn back south to Traverse City to close the circuit. The full loop runs comfortably over three days and luxuriously over five, and the natural overnight stops are Traverse City or Leland at the west end and Petoskey or Harbor Springs at the east.

Season is the single biggest variable. Late September and early October deliver the fall color that makes both marquee drives extraordinary, with crowds substantially thinner than July — this is the connoisseur's window and it is short. Summer brings full services and genuine congestion, particularly in the Sleeping Bear dune areas and along the Tunnel of Trees. Spring offers a quieter alternative, with miles of trillium along M-119 before the canopy fills in, and it deserves more attention than it gets.