Fourth of July in Northern Michigan: Sleeping Bear Dunes, Small-Town Parades and the Cherry Festival

We spent the Fourth of July 2026 in Northern Michigan, based in Frankfort during our Oshkosh or Bust RV road trip.

It was a big one: America’s 250th birthday, plus the 100th National Cherry Festival in Traverse City. Here’s how we spent the day, so you can steal the plan.

Up here, the Fourth is a big deal in any year. This year, with the country turning 250 and Traverse City’s cherry festival turning 100, the whole region felt like one giant hometown celebration. Flags on everything, lawn chairs staked out along the roads, Lake Michigan impossibly blue, and cherries everywhere you looked.

Morning: Sleeping Bear Dunes

We started at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. First stop was the Philip A. Hart Visitor Center in Empire, then the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. There are 12 stops along the loop, and we chose two: #3, the Dunes Overlook, and #11, the North Bar Lake Overlook.

Sleeping Bear Dunes stretches along 35 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, plus North and South Manitou Islands. It became a national lakeshore in 1970, and in 2011 Good Morning America named it “The Most Beautiful Place in America.” Our morning there was a foggy one, which made the dunes and the lake feel moody and almost mysterious.

The Legend of the Sleeping Bear

The park gets its name from an Ojibwe legend. A huge forest fire on the far shore of Lake Michigan drove a mother bear and her two cubs into the water, and they swam for the other side. The mother made it and climbed a high bluff to wait. Her cubs never did. The Great Spirit created North and South Manitou Islands where the cubs were lost, and the wind covered the mother with sand. She’s been waiting on that bluff ever since.

The “bear” itself was a small, tree-covered knoll at the top of the bluff that looked like a sleeping bear from the water. Wind and erosion have worn it down over the years, but once you know the story, it’s hard to look out at those two islands the same way.

RVers, Leave the Rig Behind

Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive is a 7.4-mile, one-way loop through forest and dunes, with overlooks high above Lake Michigan. It’s named for the lumberman who built it in the 1960s because he wanted to share the view; the National Park Service took it over after he died. Trailers aren’t allowed on the drive, but there’s a parking lot at the entrance where you can leave yours. Plan on about two hours if you stop at all the overlooks.

Late Morning: Small Towns Ready to Party

From there we drove through Glen Arbor and other little towns along the lakeshore. The excitement for America 250 was everywhere: flags on display, people already partying in the late morning, and lawn chairs lined up along the road, saving spots for the parade.

Glen Arbor is the kind of tiny lakeshore town that feels made for the Fourth. It’s also the hometown of Cherry Republic, which got its start in 1989 when founder Bob Sutherland sold T-shirts out of the trunk of his car with the motto “Life, Liberty, Beaches and Pie.” That might be the most Northern Michigan take on the Declaration of Independence ever written.

We also drove along Crystal Lake, which has one of the best backstories around. In 1873, an attempt to connect it to Lake Michigan with a channel dropped the lake about 20 feet. The project flopped, but it uncovered the sandy beaches people enjoy today.

Lunch: Taproot Cider House, Traverse City

Then it was on to Traverse City. We had lunch at Taproot Cider House, which serves a seasonal, scratch-made menu built around local ingredients. Stefan had a pizza, I had the Taproot Tacos and Mackenzie had the Chicken Royale Sandwich. Everything was very flavorful and fresh. The restaurant was slammed, so we waited a little for our food. But we got a table quickly and a nice cold German beer, so we were happy to wait.

Afternoon: The Cherry Festival Air Show

The highlight of the day was the air show. It had the usual favorites, like aerobatic pilot RJ Gritter, plus an F-22 and Coast Guard helicopters. We watched standing right on the shore of the lake.

There’s something special about an air show over open water. The jets come screaming in low over the bay, the sound rolls across the beach a beat later, and every head on the shoreline tilts up at the same time. Seeing the F-22, the Air Force’s stealth fighter, fly on America’s 250th birthday gave us goosebumps.

The people moored in the harbor on their boats must have had the best seats in town. Future goals? With a pilot in the family, this was also a fun warm-up for Oshkosh.

Wandering the Festival

Afterward we wandered the festival. It has a century of history behind it: Traverse City crowned its first Cherry Queen in 1925, held the first Cherry Festival in 1926, and the Michigan legislature named it a national festival in 1931. Traverse City still calls itself the Cherry Capital of the World.

The title is earned. Michigan grows nearly 75 percent of the country’s tart cherries and about a fifth of its sweet cherries, thanks to the moderate temperatures, good soil and rolling hills up north. The festival draws around half a million visitors a year, with everything from pie-eating contests to mural painting. On a holiday weekend, it felt like every one of them was there with us.

If you go, don’t leave without something cherry: dried cherries, cherry salsa, cherry pie, or a jar of cocktail cherries for the RV fridge. We picked up Premium Cocktail Cherries from Traverse City Whiskey Co.

Tips for the Fourth in Northern Michigan

• Start early. By late morning, parade watchers already had their lawn chairs lined up.
• Expect holiday traffic. There was plenty of it heading north the week of the Fourth.
• Book ahead. Flights and rental cars around Traverse City were gone during holiday week. (Ask us how we know.)
• Leave the trailer at camp. Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive doesn’t allow trailers.
• Watch the air show from the shore. Or, if you can swing it, from a boat in the harbor.

A Fourth We Won’t Forget

This Fourth had everything: a legend in the dunes, small towns that went all out, cherries in every form imaginable and fighter jets over the bay. It felt like small-town America throwing itself a 250th birthday party, and we just happened to be in town for it.

Missed the last stop? Catch up on Frankfort, Michigan by RV. Next up on Oshkosh or Bust: St. Ignace, Mackinac Island and the travel-free week that wasn’t.

Where have you spent a memorable Fourth of July? Tell us in the comments!