"The sand had moved on."
— Superintendent Scott Tucker, quoted by My Michigan Beach
That was the plain explanation for why the observation deck at Stop 9 on the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive is gone this fall. Not damaged. Not closed for repairs. Gone, taken apart piece by piece, because the dune it stood on for forty years quietly walked away from underneath it.
If you drive the loop out toward the Lake Michigan Overlook the way you have a hundred times before, expecting to pull up, park, and lean against the same railing you've leaned against since you were a kid or since you moved here or since you started taking out-of-town guests up that road every October, you'll notice the change before you notice anything else about the view. The platform installed in 1986 is simply not there anymore. And once you know why, the rest of the fall calendar in Empire starts to look a little different too.
Forty Years, One to Three Feet a Year
The math here is the part most people miss. The dune face at Stop 9 migrates east at roughly one to three feet per year. That's not a dramatic number on its own. But the platform stood for close to four decades, which means somewhere between forty and one hundred twenty feet of dune simply relocated out from under a structure that was built to be permanent.
Nobody planned for that migration to be visible on a human timescale. The Park Service built the deck well back from the dune edge in 1986, and it drew roughly half a million visitors a year for most of its life, one of the most photographed stops in the entire Lakeshore. But sand doesn't negotiate with infrastructure. Rather than let the deck fail and risk it collapsing down a four-hundred-foot dune face, crews removed it deliberately this year, ahead of the problem rather than after it.
There's no quick fix coming. A planning study in 2028 will determine what, if anything, gets built to replace it. A new deck is possible. It isn't guaranteed. For now, Stop 9 is what it was before anyone built anything there at all: a place to stand and look, with nothing between you and the drop.
The View Didn't Go Anywhere
Here's the part worth sitting with if you've been avoiding the drive since hearing the platform was gone. The view is unchanged. From Stop 9 you can still see Lake Michigan, North and South Manitou Islands, Sleeping Bear Point, and Point Betsie fifteen miles south. What's missing is the railing and the ramped deck, not the reason people drove out there in the first place.
What that does mean is a genuine shift in how you experience the stop. There's no formal platform edge to stand at, no bench, no accessible path to the overlook the way there is at Stop 3. The Park Service is direct about the tradeoff: stay well back from the dune edge, because there's nothing marking where safe ground ends anymore. If you're the kind of Empire resident who brings visiting family up here every fall to watch the color change over the water, this is the year to walk them through what's different before they get out of the car, not after.
Two Clocks Running at Once
The platform's removal landed in the same week as another Empire fixture wrapping up its own season. The Empire Hill Climb ran Friday and Saturday, September 18 and 19, on Wilco Road, its eighth year running since the race was revived after a break dating back to its original run from 1964 to 1980. Cars raced up roughly three-quarters of a mile and eight turns, free to watch, with a Friday-night "Parc Exposé" downtown where spectators got close to the cars before the racing started. Misers' Hoard owner Paul Skinner sponsored this year's event, a fixture presence that's become part of what makes the weekend feel like Empire rather than a race that happens to be held here.
The Hill Climb runs on a two-day clock. It starts, it ends, downtown empties back out, and that's that until next September. The Scenic Drive runs on a longer clock, but it's still a finite one. The vehicle season generally holds from late May into late October, weather permitting, and Pierce Stocking is typically the last section of the park to open in spring, which tells you something about how sensitive that stretch of road is to conditions. Once the vehicle closure hits in late October, the road doesn't disappear. It shifts to foot and bike traffic only, the same way it does all winter, which is its own kind of quiet worth experiencing if you've never driven it in December on cross-country skis.
Two fee-free days remain on the Lakeshore's 2026 calendar: October 27 and November 11. The October date lands right around when the Drive typically closes to cars, so if you want to catch it by vehicle before the switch to walk-in only, don't wait for that date to plan the trip. If you're the type who'd rather have the loop to yourself on foot once the crowds and the cars are gone, November 11 is worth circling.
Who's Still Open When the Tourist Clock Runs Out
The businesses that make Empire feel like Empire in October and November aren't the same ones that define it in July. Joe's Friendly Tavern, running out of the same Front Street building since Mark and Warren Deering built it in 1946, keeps its doors open seven days a week, nine to eight, breakfast served until eleven, all year. Shipwreck Cafe, out on South Lacore Road since Steve and Jennifer Nowicki opened it in 2017, does the same, open year round with fresh bread baked daily whether it's the height of dune-climb season or a gray Tuesday in November.
That's not a small thing if you live here through the shoulder months rather than just visiting during them. The restaurants that stay open when the visitor traffic thins out are the ones that were built for the people who never left, not just the ones passing through on their way to the Dune Climb.
Planning the Next Six Weeks
A few practical notes worth keeping in mind if you're making the most of fall before the vehicle closure:
- Leashed dogs are allowed on the Scenic Drive itself and on the Cottonwood Trail, but not on Empire Bluff, Pyramid Point, Sleeping Bear Point, or the Dune Climb. If you're walking a dog and want dune scenery, the Drive and Cottonwood are your options.
- The road has a 20 mph limit and shares lanes with cyclists the entire 7.4-mile loop, so plan for a slower drive than the mileage suggests, especially with wet leaves starting to show up on the steeper grades.
- Vehicle clearance on the Drive maxes out at 13 feet 6 inches, the same limit set by the original covered bridge Pierce Stocking built at Stop 1 back in 1967.
None of this changes what the dune itself is doing, which is the part that outlasts every calendar built around it. The Hill Climb will come back next September on schedule. The Scenic Drive will close to cars again in a few weeks and reopen next May. Stop 9 will keep migrating whether or not there's a deck standing on it. Empire's fall rhythm has always been built on things that move on their own timeline, and this year the dune just made that a little harder to ignore.
If watching a place like this change over decades, not just seasons, is part of why you live here or why you're thinking about it, Ken Kleinrichert offers a free home valuation and consultation for anyone curious what a front-row seat to Old Mission Peninsula, Empire, or the rest of the Grand Traverse region is worth right now. No pressure, just numbers and a conversation grounded in the place itself.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
