Photo credit: Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau

Cutline: Seen from the air, Michigan’s Grand Traverse Bay displays its “split personality.” Bisected by the narrow Old Mission Peninsula with its miles of cherry orchards and vineyards, the bay is actually two separate bodies of water, each with its own distinct natural and historical character.

(Other high-resolution photos available on request.)

 

 

TRAVERSE CITY, MI – If there’s a single feature that defines the laid-back Michigan resort community of Traverse City, it’s the inescapable presence of Grand Traverse Bay.

 

Its sheltered, incredibly clear waters attract boaters, fishermen and yachtsmen, its wide sandy beaches are a popular tourism asset, and it’s the ever-present backdrop to every beautiful scene. It even affects the local climate, creating the moderate weather that gives Traverse City its cool summers and temperate winters.

 

But anyone who’s spent any time around the Bay knows that its name is a misnomer. There are actually two bays, not one. Separated by the 17-mile length of the Old Mission Peninsula, these narrow freshwater fiords are known to geographers as the east and west “arms” of Grand Traverse Bay, but the locals (who know better) have always called them simply East Bay and West Bay.

 

It was the French who created the misunderstanding. One can hardly blame them, of course; they were in a hurry, and vacation was the last thing on their minds. They were hard-working 18^th-century voyageurs, paddling their huge canoes up the Lake Michigan shoreline with a big cargo of beaver pelts and trade goods, and by the time they reached the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula, the last thing they wanted to see was more water.

 

“Zut, alors!” they exclaimed. “Quelle grand traverse!” (Which means something like, “Dude, it’s going to take ALL DAYto get across this thing!”) The name stuck, and for the last 300 years it’s been known as Grand Traverse Bay.

 

Although they may look very similar at first glance – the same stunning blend of deepwater blues and shallow greens, the same border of lush forested hills – each of Traverse City’s twin bays has its own distinct and special character. Urban West Bay is Traverse City’s watery “front yard,” a former industrial port that’s now an enchanting zone of parks, marinas and public beaches, while resort-oriented East Bay, almost entirely outside the city limits, is lined with hotels, resorts and private homes.

 

“Technically, there’s only one bay,” said John Nelson, the “baykeeper” at the Grand Traverse Bay Watershed Center in Traverse City. “But there are some significant differences. East Bay has most of the coastal wetlands, and its east shore has more the feel of the open Lake Michigan shoreline, while West Bay has more vegetation and a rockier feel.”

 

The differences go back nearly 14,000 years, when the last great Ice Age still covered northern Michigan with a wall of ice over a mile high. As it slowly melted, this titanic bulldozer left a distinctive landscape behind: long, deep gouges filled with intensely clear blue water, separated by long, narrow ridges of rock, gravel and other debris.

 

The shore of East Bay was left relatively smooth, with only a single natural harbor near the tip of the Peninsula. The West Bay shoreline is much more ragged. It boasts four smaller bays (Suttons Bay, Bowers Harbor, Omena Bay, and Northport Bay), three islands (Power Island, Bassett Island and Bellows Island) and the mouth of a major river system. And while the sandy shoals of East Bay extend out as far as a mile from the beach, West Bay stays deep all the way to its southern edge.

 

It was only natural that the western bay would become the busier of the two, since it had several natural anchorages and the only potential site for a deepwater port. As early as 1847, when Horace Boardman started the first sawmill at the site of what would eventually become Traverse City, West Bay was the region’s industrial and transportation hub, its waters crowded with schooners, steamships and other vessels, its shores jammed with wharves, docks and warehouses.

 

East Bay’s fate was quite different. Except at its northern end, where the town of Elk Rapids experienced a brief heyday as an iron-smelting port, it became a rustic retreat where local residents could enjoy relief from the hustle and bustle of the city. Small cabins and cottages – and even a waterfront dance hall -- sprang up along the southern shore. In the 1920s, a state park was established near Three Mile Road.

 

The process accelerated after the 1950s, when the East Bay beaches -- christened the “Sugar Sand Miracle Mile” – were the first Traverse City attractions to be actively marketed to tourists. One by one, the small “mom and pop” cabins were replaced by the full-service motels and resorts that now line the water.

 

Traverse City’s West Bay waterfront was also changing, as the city began cleaning up the sites of old industrial docks and turning them into parklands. Today, the entire West Bay waterfront west of the Boardman River is a complex of public beaches, walking paths and parks, including Clinch Park, West End Beach, the Open Space Project and the waterfront section of the Traverse Area recreational Trail.

 

The two bays still retain many of their old differences. West Bay is still the “city bay” despite its spacious wide-open feel; because of its depth, it still attracts more sailboats and other deep-draft watercraft. The gentle beaches of East Bay have a more enclosed, private atmosphere, and are more congenial to shallow-water boats, paddlers and the air-mattress crowd.

 

In the end, of course, there’s really no need to choose. Since they’re separated by less than a mile of land, all the differences and similarities of Traverse City’s “twin bays” can be compared and enjoyed in a matter of minutes. Here are a few of their highlights:

 

West Bay features Clinch Park, over 1500 feet of sandy beach with picnic tables, lifeguards, restrooms, a marina, and a miniature steam train. Prized for its proximity to downtown shops, restaurants and parking, Clinch Park is the most popular of Traverse City’s many beaches. To the east is Bryant Park, which offers relief from the afternoon sun and a fine swimming beach where children can be easily supervised, and at its western end, West Bay still shows some traces of its past as a frontier waterfront: the remains of 19^th century wharves and piers, bits of sand-frosted glass and sand-smoothed from long-ago sawmills.

 

Much of the East Bay shoreline is in Traverse City’s hotel zone, although no one really minds if you wander along that mile-long stretch of fine golden sand. At the foot of Three Mile Road is one major exception: the Traverse City State Park, which offers 700 feet of splendid sandy beach near the mouth of Mitchell Creek with a roomy bathhouse and changing room and a well-maintained picnic area. Another East Bay surprise is some 15 miles north of the city, in the tiny village of Old Mission, where Haserot Beach features a lovely south-facing beach in a sheltered, crescent-shaped harbor. 

 

To learn about other outdoor adventures, culinary treats and attractions in the Traverse City area (including even more beaches), contact the Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau at 1-800-TRAVERSE or on line at www.VisitTraverseCity.com