MORNINGSIDE COTTAGE -The Most Beautiful Place in America - Sleeping Bear Park

Winter has arrived - Crystal Mtn Ski Resort-down-hill skiing (20 minutes - 16 miles away) is opening for skiing this Friday December 6th, 2025. Cross-Country Skiing/Hiking in Sleeping Bear National Park ice-fishing, snowmobiling on groomed trails in Benzie County, Morningside Cottage is a Year-Round Rental with Natural Gas Base-Board hot water heat/ plowed/ winterized/ Fireplace/ wood provided/. We are here for all of your Winter enjoyment. Come visit us.
Our goal, through Morningside Cottage, is to provide you and your family privacy, solitude, a chance for your family to 're-connect' and comfortable lodging when you're up north having family fun in our beautiful, friendly, and fun-filled area for the whole family.
Little towns with stores, restaurants, wineries, breweries, and a meadery abound in our corner of Northwest, Michigan. The fun never ends in Benzie and Leelanau County.
Morningside Cottage on Little Platte Lake is just 10 minutes away from the 'Most Beautiful Place in America' - Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore bounded by M-22, Michigan's Scenic Highway. That 10-minute drive (2.5 miles) will put you on the shore of Platte Bay within the 35 miles of Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore – with miles of hiking/biking trails, pristine sand beaches, crystal clear waters for swimming.
Fishing – Little Platte Lake – shallow – is one big bass-bed, smallmouth and largemouth bass – for the fishermen in your group, Steelhead fishing fall through spring in our Betsie and Platte Rivers, Summer trout fishing on our many streams and lakes, Late summer and fall Salmon and Lake Trout in Lake Michigan.
Golf -Crystal Mountain Resort, Crystal Lake -Beulah, Pinecroft-Beulah, Champion Hills, Mistwood, Bear Lake, Dunes, Chestnut Hills, Arcadia Bluffs, Interlochen – these and more within 30 minutes of the cottage.
Keywords: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park-2 miles, Lake Michigan Beach- 3.5 miles, Crystal Mtn (golf, down-hill skiing), 20 minutes away, Interlochen National Arts Academy (headliner and student performances during the summer and year-round) 15 minutes away, Traverse City 30 minutes away, 2.5 miles to Honor, Cherry-Bowl Drive-In, available year-around. Heavily wooded property, 8 miles to Leelanau County wine-country, stress-release relaxing,
Morningside Cottage is located on the South-side of Little Platte Lake in the northern portion of Benzie County, Michigan about 3.5 miles from Lake Michigan and the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore. The cottage is on a 1.5 acre, heavily wooded parcel with 200 ft. of frontage on Little Platte Lake. The mixed variety of trees including maple, beech, oak, hemlock and white pine provide a canopy fifty to sixty feet high and make the property very secluded and private. Morningside Cottage is 275 ft. from Deadstream Rd and accessed by our own two-track. The cottage overlooks the lake and surrounding forested hills. Morningside Cottage is 1200 sq. ft. in size and the first floor consists of a fully furnished kitchen, Berber carpeting throughout the rest of the cottage including the paneled dining room, living room (stone fireplace-hard wood included), small library/reading room, both the master bedroom (over-looking the lake) and 2nd bedroom with queen-sized beds, full bath and a half, and a washer/dryer. The downstairs consists of a large Berber carpeted recreational room with TV, wood stove, tables, and couches. You’ll find Morningside Cottage to be a very relaxing family-oriented cottage that is very private, quiet, and secluded. All the utensils you should need during your stay are found in our well-stocked kitchen. We provide bed linens, but you must bring your own washcloths and bath towels. We are pet and smoke free. As you shut down for the evening, lying in bed, you may be entertained by our resident loons on the lake as their tremolo echoes across the lake, a symbol of the up-north mystique. During daylight you may see one or more of our resident Eagles soaring above the lake and also the numerous resident swans and if you’re really lucky you may have a group fly low over the cottage – awe-inspiring- and when you hear their wingbeats you realize just how big of an animal they really are. A person may say they are going to take a “stay-at-home-vacation” but what I have found is that all the troubles and cares as well as “things-to-do” don’t’ go away but when you leave home you do have that opportunity to relax and refresh.
A 400 sq. deck is attached to the front of Morningside Cottage overlooking Little Platte Lake and includes chairs, table, and gas grill, a great place to relax with your morning coffee, evening-meal, or mid-day relaxing/reading time. The lakefront includes a dock, boat hoist/13 ft. fishing boat with 4hp motor, gas/oars/canoe/four kayaks/paddles/lifejackets, and a fire-pit stocked with wood for those evening fires/hot dogs and some-mores.
Little Platte Lake, sand and gravel in front of our cottage, is a shallow lake with blue-gills, perch, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass and pike. The Little Platte Lake outlet, “Deadstream”, flows into the Platte River then into big Platte Lake and finally via the Platte River to Lake Michigan.
Our Northwestern Michigan Area was voted “Most Beautiful Place in America' by Good-Morning America in 2011. Traveling though the vast United States a person may witness many beautiful areas, but our area is surly one of our Nations highlights. Our property is approximately 40 minutes to Traverse City, 20 minutes to Interlochen National Music Camp, 2.5 hours from Grand Rapids, 4 hours from Detroit and 6 hours from Chicago.