Michigan gives riders something almost no other state can: hundreds of miles of Great Lakes shoreline with two-lane roads running right along it. The four that matter most are M-22 around the Leelanau Peninsula, M-119's Tunnel of Trees north of Harbor Springs, US 2 along the Lake Michigan shore in the Upper Peninsula, and Brockway Mountain Drive at the tip of the Keweenaw. None of them are canyon roads — this is not a state you come to for hairpins. What you get instead is water on one side for hours at a time, and in late September and October, color that people plan entire trips around.
What riding Michigan is actually like
Two states in one, split by the Mackinac Bridge. The northern Lower Peninsula is orchards, dunes, resort towns and rolling glacial hills — busy in July, excellent in September. The Upper Peninsula is forest, iron country and a lot of distance between towns, with traffic counts that drop off a cliff the further west you go. Both halves have a short season. The good riding runs roughly May through October, and the shoulder weeks at either end are cold enough on a bike near open water to change what you pack. If you want climbing and hairpins instead of shoreline, that is a different trip entirely; NY 73 and the Whiteface toll road are the eastern answer to it.
Top roads in Michigan
| Road | Length | What it is | End to end |
|---|---|---|---|
| M-22 | 117 miles | Leelanau Peninsula loop past Sleeping Bear Dunes; turns, hills and Lake Michigan the whole way | US 31 near Manistee to Traverse City |
| M-119 (Tunnel of Trees) | 27.5 miles | Narrow, centerline-free lane under a closed canopy above the Lake Michigan bluff | US 31 near Bay View to Cross Village |
| US 2, UP shoreline | Roughly 60 miles of shoreline running | Lake Michigan on your right, Hiawatha National Forest on your left, Cut River Bridge in the middle | Naubinway to St. Ignace |
| Brockway Mountain Drive | 8.9 miles | Ridge road to 1,320 feet with Lake Superior on three sides; closed in winter | M-26 near Eagle Harbor to M-26 in Copper Harbor |
Open the full M-22 route in Google Maps — Manistee up the coast through Empire and Northport into Traverse City, ready to send straight to your navigation.
M-22, the one on the stickers
Almost 117 miles from US 31 three miles northeast of Manistee, north along Lake Michigan to Northport at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula, then back down the west arm of Grand Traverse Bay into Traverse City. The route sign has become a regional logo — the state has replaced roughly 90 stolen markers in a three-year stretch, and in 2016 the transportation department started removing the "M" from the top of some signs to make them less attractive to thieves. Signs cost $325 to $350 apiece to make, which is a strange thing to know about a road, and also tells you how much people love it.
The riding is genuinely varied for a coastal route. Out of Manistee it runs inland around Portage Lake through Onekama, then rejoins the water at Arcadia. North of Frankfort it curves along the north shore of Crystal Lake and then enters Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore south of the Platte River, which is the best hour of the day: dune country, hardwoods, Empire and Glen Arbor. From Leland to Northport the shoreline gets quieter, and the run south along Grand Traverse Bay through Suttons Bay is the postcard stretch.
Readers of USA Today voted M-22 the best scenic autumn drive in the country in 2015 — which explains the traffic. On an October weekend the section through the national lakeshore backs up, and passing opportunities on a two-lane with driveways every few hundred feet are limited, and queueing behind tourist traffic means spending real time where drivers cannot see you — our guide to vehicle blind spots covers where those gaps sit. Ride it north on a weekday morning if you can.
M-119, the Tunnel of Trees
Twenty-seven and a half miles total, but the part everyone means starts in Harbor Springs and runs 20-odd miles north to Cross Village. From Harbor Springs on it's a designated scenic heritage route and a Pure Michigan Byway, following an old Ottawa trail along the top of the Lake Michigan bluff through oak, maple, birch and cedar. The road narrows, loses its centerline entirely, and stays that way most of the rest of the distance. The state's own description is the best one: "M-119 is not a road for those in a hurry."
The canopy is the point. The foliage from both sides meets overhead and closes into a tunnel, with the lake visible only in glimpses between trees. The Discovery Channel once put it on a list of the top ten motorcycle rides in North America, and unusually for that kind of list, it earns the spot — not for pace but for texture. It is a slow road, deliberately.
Practical realities: no centerline means oncoming cars drift, blind crests are frequent, and the shoulder is often a drop into sand and roots. Traffic counts show around 14,600 vehicles a day near the southern end and about 2,000 a day at the Cross Village end, so the further north you go the emptier it gets. There are no services on the tunnel section — Harbor Springs at one end, Cross Village at the other, and Good Hart in between.
US 2 along the Lake Michigan shore
US 2 crosses the entire Upper Peninsula, but the piece riders care about is the eastern end. From Gould City the highway runs due east to Naubinway and then hugs the Lake Michigan shoreline through Epoufette, crosses the Cut River Bridge 147 feet above the Cut River, enters the eastern unit of Hiawatha National Forest near Brevort with the lake on one side and Brevoort Lake on the other, and stays on the water until it turns inland just west of St. Ignace.
What makes it different from the Lower Peninsula roads is that here the beach is right there — pull-offs where you can park the bike on sand and walk to the water in twenty seconds, for miles at a stretch. It's part of the Top of the Lake Scenic Byway and carries the Lake Michigan Circle Tour designation, the same tour that comes back up the far shore where WIS 42 on the Door Peninsula carries it. The speed limit from Gladstone all the way to St. Ignace is 65 mph, which for a long time made it the only non-interstate road in the UP above 55, so this is cruising rather than carving.
Time it to arrive at St. Ignace in the evening if you're crossing the Mackinac Bridge, and be honest with yourself about crosswind on the bridge deck — it's a long, fully exposed span high over open water between two lakes, and it does not care how heavy your bike is.
Brockway Mountain Drive
Eight point nine miles at the very top of the Keweenaw Peninsula, and the most concentrated payoff in the state. Both ends drop onto M-26 — near Eagle Harbor at the west, in Copper Harbor at the east — and in between the road climbs the ridge of Brockway Mountain along the Keweenaw Fault to 1,320 feet above sea level, 720 feet above the surface of Lake Superior. On a clear day Isle Royale is visible about 50 miles out. It was built by the county road commission in 1933 with Depression-era work funding, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.
It is closed to vehicles in winter, and "winter" up here is generous — the Keweenaw gets buried, and snow lingers into spring. Check before you commit to a late-season run north from Houghton, because the alternative is backtracking a long way. The road itself is county-maintained, so surface quality varies and the guard protection at the overlooks is minimal in places. Ride it slow; you're there for the view anyway.
Fuel, season and the practical stuff
Fuel. The Lower Peninsula routes are easy — Manistee, Frankfort, Empire, Leland, Suttons Bay, Traverse City, Harbor Springs. The UP is a different calculation. West of St. Ignace, stations get sparse and many close early or don't open on Sundays outside summer. In the Keweenaw, treat Houghton and Copper Harbor as your anchors and don't plan on anything reliable between them after dark.
Season. Realistically May through mid-October. Late September into early October is peak color and the best riding of the year; it is also when every scenic road in the state fills with cars. Brockway Mountain Drive is shut for winter outright, and both peninsulas can see snow in May and October.
Deer. The northern Lower Peninsula is thick with them, and the UP adds bear and, in the western counties, moose. Dawn and dusk on any of these roads is the risk window, and the tree cover on M-119 in particular means an animal at the road edge is invisible until it moves.
Wind and temperature. Open-water riding is colder than the forecast for the nearest town, sometimes by a lot. A 70-degree afternoon in Traverse City can be 55 with wind chill on the M-22 shoreline north of Leland. Layer more than you think you need.
Sand. This is the one people don't expect. Dune country, beach access points and winter sanding all put loose sand on the pavement, often in the outside of a corner near a lake access. It looks like a shadow until you're on it.
Gear notes for a Great Lakes trip
Two things about Michigan touring specifically. First, distance between fuel and food in the UP means your route planning has to be real, and cell service between Naubinway and Brevort or anywhere west of Houghton is patchy enough that a live route matters. Running the day's route on a dedicated riding system screen instead of a phone clamped to the bars keeps the map readable in the flat glare that comes off open water, and keeps the phone out of the drizzle that arrives from the lake without warning. Second, the temperature swing between a sunny inland stretch and forty miles of shoreline moves tire pressure more than riders expect, and both M-119 and Brockway Mountain Drive have sand and gravel in exactly the corners where you'd rather have grip. We cover what cold lake air does to your pressure, and a Bluetooth TPMS sensor puts the actual number in front of you instead of a guess made at the last gas stop. The JADO S6 handles both on one 6-inch display and keeps the front and rear cameras running, which is worth having on roads where deer are a statistical certainty rather than a possibility.
FAQ
What is the best motorcycle road in Michigan?
M-22 for a full day of varied riding — 117 miles of shoreline, dunes and hills around the Leelanau Peninsula. M-119's Tunnel of Trees is the more memorable single hour, but it's short.
When is the best time to ride Michigan?
Late September through mid-October for color, June for long daylight and light traffic. July and August bring the heaviest tourist traffic on M-22 and around Sleeping Bear Dunes.
Is the Tunnel of Trees hard to ride?
It's not technically difficult, but it demands attention. Most of it has no centerline, it's narrow enough that oncoming traffic drifts into your line, and blind crests are constant. Ride it slowly and it's one of the best roads in the Midwest.
Can you ride Brockway Mountain Drive year-round?
No. It's closed to vehicle traffic in winter, and in the Keweenaw that season is long. Plan on a summer-and-early-fall road and check conditions before riding north from Houghton.
How many days do you need for a Michigan loop?
Three or four days covers M-22 and the Tunnel of Trees comfortably from a base in Traverse City or Petoskey. Adding the Upper Peninsula and the Keweenaw realistically wants a week — Copper Harbor is a long way from Mackinac.
