Old Mission Peninsula

On the 2nd full day of our Sleeping Bear Dunes Camping trip, the weather was absolutely gorgeous, so we opted to go for a winery bike tour (self guided) on the Old Mission Peninsula near Traverse City. Center road is fairly easy to bike, has a wide shoulder, and the traffic was sparse the day we visited. There are a few hills, but once you make it to the top, you get to coast down. There are two roads that go on either side of the peninsula (Bluff Rd and Peninsula Dr), but these roads are windy with heavier traffic and little to no shoulder. If you do bike on either of these roads, please use caution.

Our first stop on the Old Mission Peninsula was Peninsula Cellars. We were the first customers of the day, so we got to chat with several of the employees and the owner. They were all laid back, friendly, and very knowledgeable. They even introduced me to one of my new favorite types of wine, gewurztraminer. The owner was super cool, and let us ditch our car at the winery for the day while we rode our bikes, so we bought some extra wine to say thanks.

The next stop was Chateau Grand Traverse. This was probably my favorite stop of the day. Instead of tasting a bunch of different wines inside, we both got a glass of wine and sat on the patio outside. The temperature was perfect, the sun was shining, and we had beautiful views of the lake past the grape vines. I had a cherry Riesling that was so yummy that we ended up driving back later in the day so I could buy a bottle (I didn’t want to carry the bottle on my bike the whole day).  They offer free tours of the winery, which Nisheet partook in, but I opted to sit outside and continue soaking up the sun.

Next up was Brys Estate. It was a little too frou-frou and busy for our tastes, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. One neat aspect was that instead of sampling the wines at tasting bar, you were lead through the winery and got to sample the wines at different spots. Unfortunately, since it was so busy, we felt very rushed through the experience. Also, we got to keep our wine glass! Yay!

Our last stop of the day was Bowers Harbor and was by far Nisheet’s favorite. The atmosphere was more like a brewery than a winery, and they also made hard cider. After several wines and ciders, we ordered a glass of cider, cheese, and bread to share. We sat outside, listened to live music, and drank in the sounds and sights.

Our campground was roughly 1 mile away from the lake and situated right next to a trail, so that evening after we got back we hiked to the beach to watch the sunset. It was magnificent. You could see little groups of people dotted along the shore, most of them with a bonfire. Once it was dark, some of them started shooting off fireworks, but the rangers put a stop to that very quickly. Without the fireworks, the stars and moon were amazing. They were bright enough we didn’t even need a flashlight to find our way back to the trail.