Petoskey

Petoskey sits at the northern edge of Michigan's Lower Peninsula along Little Traverse Bay, where a compact downtown runs parallel to the water. The main commercial area follows Lake Street, with small shops and restaurants filling brick buildings that step down toward the marina and public beaches.

Railway tracks reached this spot in 1876, bringing merchants and seasonal visitors who turned a small lakeside settlement into a commercial hub. The town gained official city status in 1895 as families from southern Michigan and beyond began building summer homes along the bay.

The name comes from the Odawa language and means "where the light shines through the clouds", showing the deep connection with the indigenous peoples of this shoreline. Visitors today walk streets that follow paths used by Native American communities for generations before European settlement arrived.

The downtown core is easy to explore on foot, with most shops and restaurants within a few blocks of the waterfront. Visitors find parking near the marina and can walk easily to beaches and the shoreline path from there.

The shoreline here holds fossilized coral fragments that formed roughly 350 million years ago when this area lay beneath a warm tropical sea. These hexagonal-patterned stones show their shape most clearly when wet and appear along beaches throughout the bay.