Editor’s note: This article was published in Grand Traverse Scene magazine’s Summer I 2026 issue. Pick up a free copy at area hotels, visitor’s centers, chambers of commerce or at the Record-Eagle building at 1764 Forest Ridge Drive in Traverse City. Click here to read GT Scene in its entirety online.
On any given day a massive rainbow might stretch its way across the northern Michigan countryside, while another — with its cross-bearing steeple glimmering in its colorful crest — might peacefully yawn over a quaint lakeshore village. On another day, a pillar-like rainbow might spring up from the Lake Michigan shoreline and climb its way into the passing clouds, while still another will reach for the clouds from Coast Guard Station Manistee.
Rainbows, of course, are the gift of passing springtime and summer rains that leave their droplets dancing across pink lilies, hanging from grapevines, clinging ever-so delicately to leafy dance floors, and always, with the explosive splash of a single droplet, it creates a silvery crown on the water’s surface.