Grand Traverse Bay is an arm of Lake Michigan, located along the west coast of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The bay is separated from the rest of Lake Michigan by the Leelanau Peninsula. The bay is some 32 miles (51 km) long, ranges from 7 to 10 miles wide, and up to 620 feet (190 m) deep in spots. It is the second-largest bay of Lake Michigan, behind Green Bay.
East Arm of Grand Traverse Bay looking west from Elk Rapids toward Old Mission Peninsula
Close-up satellite view of the Grand Traverse Bay, oriented with north at the top. Note the East and West arms of the bay, divided by the Old Mission Peninsula.
The Grand Traverse Lighthouse at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula, which anchors the bay to the west.
Power Island is the largest island in the bay, seen here from Chateau Chantal on the Old Mission Peninsula
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third-largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that of Lake Huron through the 3+1⁄2-mile (5.6-kilometer) wide, 295-foot deep Straits of Mackinac, giving it the same surface elevation as its easterly counterpart; geologically, the two bodies are a single lake that is, by area, the largest freshwater lake in the world.
Lake Michigan viewed from the International Space Station (August 19, 2019). Chicago sits at the extreme S.W. of the lake.
Most islands in Lake Michigan are in the northern part of the lake. Photo taken from the International Space Station on April 10, 2022.
Grand Traverse Bay, a large bay of Lake Michigan in Michigan's Lower Peninsula, from the community of Elk Rapids
View of Lake Michigan from Indiana Dunes National Park