Resorts & getaways / Cedar (Cleveland Township)
Sugar Loaf Resort
Closed – archive entry · 1964–2000 · demolished 2021
A Leelanau County ski and golf resort northwest of Traverse City (1964–2000) with the steepest ski hill in Michigan. It sat empty for two decades and came down in 2021.
Quick facts
- Opened
- 1964
03 / The story of this place
What was here?
Sugar Loaf opened in 1964 in Leelanau County, about 20 miles northwest of Traverse City, with the steepest ski hill in Michigan and runs like Awful Awful and Devil's Elbow. In the 1970s up to 3,000 skiers a day showed up, and the complex had a hotel, a restaurant, an indoor pool, golf and its own airstrip. After years of debt and changing owners it closed after the 2000 season, with the beds still made and the phones still on the desks. It sat decaying for two decades while revival plans came and went, and the buildings came down in late 2021.
- Steepest ski hill in Michigan
- Up to 3,000 skiers a day in the 1970s
- Had its own airstrip
- What’s there now?
- SPV 45 LLC bought the 160-acre ski site in November 2020, and the lodge and hotel were demolished starting in late 2021; the 72 Sugar Loaf townhouses and The Old Course golf course, split off earlier, remain.
Hotels nearby
Back to hotels ↗
Resorts & getaways / Glen Arbor · Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
The Homestead
Boutique / Traverse City · Warehouse District on West Grand Traverse Bay
Hotel Indigo Traverse City
Boutique / Downtown Traverse City
Park Place Hotel & Conference Center
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