This silent auction item will be presented for final bidding at our annual picnic on Thursday, August 4th.

Manitou Island Transit offers a unique way to experience the beauty of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore — a boat trip to South Manitou Island paired with a cart tour of the island. 

Plan your own trip: Boats run Mid-May through the 1st weekend in October. Includes roundtrip tickets to South Manitou Island and a wagon tour of the island for four. You are welcome to extend your stay by camping overnight on the island, or simply make it a day trip!

(Visit http://manitoutransit.com/day-trip-to-south-manitou/rates-schedule/ for specific details, as day trips and wagon tour are not available everyday and every season)

Wagon Tour of the Island

Hop aboard one of our wagon tours to view the Giant Cedar Trees on the Southwest corner of the island. These Giants that escaped the lumbermen’s ax date back to before Columbus. You will also be able to see the Francisco Morazan shipwreck :the Liberian freighter that ran aground in 1960. Tour options are available, please see crew onboard for more information and to sign up.

Giant Cedar Trees

Tucked away on the southwest corner of South Manitou Island is a grove of virgin white cedar trees, the largest in North America. One of the fallen trees showed 528 growth rings dating its existence back to before Columbus. These trees are over twice as large as the average White Cedar. The trail loops through this area, so you can get a good appreciation for the size and number of these trees. It is a mystical walk. Some say that these trees were spared because their bark is infused with wind-blown sand, and the lumberman didn’t want to have continually resharpen their saws, which they had to do by hand. This hike is about 0.3 miles beyond the turn-off to the Shipwreck of the Morazan. It is also on the wagon tour route.