Sleeping Bear Dunes (Credit: National Park Service)
MILWAUKEE - Wisconsin and Michigan are neighbors across the lake, but a controversial topic has been brewing for years. Which side of Lake Michigan is better—the west side (Wisconsin) or the east side (Michigan)?
It is a matter of what you prefer, because each side has slightly different beaches and sand dunes.
Waves and wind impacts
Big picture view:
To the ordinary eye, a beach is made up of sand, but if you have visited beaches around the lake, you may notice the difference in sand texture. Sand in Wisconsin can be coarser while in Michigan it can be smoother. This is due to the waves and winds smoothing out the sand grains as it makes its journey across the lake.
Winds typically move west to east, pulling warmer water in the summer months to the Michigan side of the lake. That can make it more enjoyable to swim and enjoy the fresh water on the east side.
Making of sand dunes
Dig deeper:
On the coast of Lake Michigan, sand dunes were created millions of years ago as large glaciers covered the area. As the ice moved over rocks, it ground them down, forming what is now the dunes.
Wind also has a huge impact that blows the sand, helping create the sand dunes and constantly helps them change in size due to the winds coming off of the lake. Winds can easily move sand, causing the dunes to grow larger or smaller in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Water also transports the sand in the lake, so waves and currents have a direct impact on the shorelines/beaches.
Dunes in Wisconsin vs. Michigan
Local perspective:
Michigan has more sand dunes and higher ones compared to Wisconsin. In fact, the sand dunes in Michigan are the largest freshwater sand dunes in the entire world! Some of the dunes, such as the Sleep Bear Dunes, reach 450 feet above the lake, making it a workout to climb them.
Sand dunes in Wisconsin still hold their own beauty, but only reach 93 feet above the lake at the Whitefish Dunes State Park and only up to 20 feet high at Kohler Park Dunes. This shows the impact of winds blowing west to east across the lake.
The landscape on the west side of Wisconsin also has more rocky surfaces and beaches due to less erosion from winds blowing east more than west. But that being said, wind direction changes all the time, so there will be impacts on all coastlines around the lake.
While Michigan may experience warmer water in the summer, higher dunes, and smoother sand—they pay for it in the winter. Lake effect snow typically causes much larger impacts and higher snowfall amounts than in Wisconsin.
The Source: FOX6 Weather Experts, The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, The National Parks System, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.