Arcadia Bluffs & Inspiration Point — a stop on M-22.
Slow down and start looking for the turn to the Arcadia Overlook, because this is the first genuinely breathtaking view on the drive and a lot of people blow straight past it.
A short steep spur road climbs to a parking area, and from there a boardwalk and stairway carries you out to a platform on the edge of the bluff — and the lake simply opens up beneath you. You're standing several hundred feet above the water on a wall of sand and clay, with Lake Michigan running to the horizon, and on a clear evening the sunset from up here is as good as anything on this coast. They call the viewing platform Inspiration Point, and for once the name is earned.
Two things to know. It's a real stairway with real steps, so it's a bit of a climb back up. And it is almost always windy up there — bring a layer even in July, because a fifteen-mile-an-hour breeze off a cold lake will cut straight through a t-shirt.
Below and north of you is the village of Arcadia, and beyond that the bluffs run on. This is the shape of the next twenty miles: farmland on your right, and a wall of sand dropping into blue on your left.