Leaving Leland Township Harbor you get the impression of diving into a symphony of shades of blue from the sky down the gunwhales hard to capture by camera. It's no wonder Michiganians (or Michiganders) love their Lake and their shore.

Heading south from Leland, we passed Pyramid Point and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. These mountains of sand and dunes stretching down to the shore make the Michigan shore quite distinct from the shorescape we'd seen in Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay - perhaps the result of millennia of prevailing westerly winds slapping sand into mountains on the eastern shore of the Lake.

As we plied our way south, we passed Point Betsie Lighthouse and came to the entrance of Frankfort Harbor / Lake Betsie.

Entering Frankfort Harbor and Lake Betsie, we eased into a slip and explored the town. Originally when Father Marquette explored this area (purportedly where he died and was buried), it was named Baie aux Becs Scies (Saw Bill Duck Bay), which was corrupted by the anglophones to Betsie.

We also strolled along Frankfort Beach - where if you didn't know this was Lake Michigan you'd swear it was the ocean side, replete with dunes and beach grass.

In the early evening we took a stroll along the Betsie Valley Trailway as far as Elberta on the other side of the lake - and were enchanted by the quiet trail that led around what was a century ago one of Michigan's busiest lumber harbors, chock full of steam ships. Nature does take over eventually.