Our annual travel issue shows you where to take the family for adventure and history, both in Michigan and further on down the road.

Whether you’re craving an outdoor adventure, tracing the paths of early explorers or just looking for quirky fun, America’s roads pave the pathway to fun.

For detailed vacation ideas, the U.S. Department of Transportation has developed the National Scenic Byways Program, an effort to recognize, preserve and enhance designated roads throughout the country. The U.S. Secretary of Transportation recognizes certain roads based on archaeological, cultural, historical, natural, recreational or scenic qualities.

For a byways list by state, visit www.byways.org/explore or call 800-429-9297 or 202-366-1929.

Plenty of other adventures await you along America’s pathways, so pack your bags, get the family in the car, and start exploring! Let’s start with some Michigan stops:

Manitou Islands
The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore includes two large islands in Lake Michigan – North and South Manitou. Try a day trip to South Manitou and explore its village and lighthouse, or take a motor tour of the farming district.
South Manitou’s lighthouse was commissioned in 1872 and served Lake Michigan shipping for over 100 years. Climb its 117-step circular stairway for a great view of the Manitou Passage.

If you go to North Manitou Island, plan to camp overnight!

Islands access is by private boat or a passenger ferry run by the family-owned Manitou Island Transit (231-256-9061). Between June and August, ferries for each Island leave daily from the Fishtown Dock in Leland, and reservations are recommended.

On the way is the North Manitou Island Lighthouse Crib, which is a favorite resting place for double-crested cormorants.

If you’re piloting your own boat, South Manitou is a harbor of refuge (231-236-5134).

After the Manitous, there is more to do at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore than just climb sand dunes. A hot summer day is also ideal for floating the Platte or Crystal River. For details, call 231-326-5134.

Fort Mackinac
Constructed by the British on Mackinac Island during the American Revolution, Fort Mackinac served as an imposing sentinel in the Straits of Mackinac for 115 years.

Built in the 1880s, it still has 14 original buildings with interactive exhibits, a children’s play area, and a Victorian museum store. Outside, 1880s soldier interpreters play concerts of military music, fire rifles on the parade ground, and deliver a cannon salute over the harbor.

The newest exhibit, “Military Medicine at Mackinac,” is inside the 1829 Post Hospital. Through a giant microscope, you can watch a virtual physician make his rounds in 1837, and examine the period’s unusual medical equipment.

The Island fortress was also the place where the first land action of the War of 1812 took place and it became the second National Park in the United States.

Today, it’s open daily from May 7 to Oct. 7, and offers 1880’s reenactments for visitors. See their Web site or contact Mackinac State Historic Parks at 231-436-4100.

Colonial Michilimackinac
Founded in 1715 as a French fur-trading village and military outpost, Michilimackinac was later occupied by the British who abandoned it in 1780 to establish a new fort on Mackinac Island (Fort Mackinac).

Today this site has a reconstruction of how the fortified village looked in the 1770s.

In peak season, colonial life comes alive through vivid re-enactments as you meet village residents, witness a traditional French wedding and see the boisterous “Arrival of the Voyageurs,” and watch soldiers demonstrate their musket- and cannon-firing skills on the parade grounds. The fort’s 13 buildings are inhabited by a regiment of lively reenactors portraying Redcoat soldiers, traders, and colonial ladies who demonstrate cooking, sewing, and arts of the time. From late June through August, archaeologists also continue to sift the sand for artifacts.

A unique permanent underground archaeological tunnel exhibit also displays many original artifacts: colonial soldiers’ uniform buttons, coins, and rosary beads.

Isle Royale National Park
Roadless Isle Royale is accessible only by boat or seaplane, so travelers come to experience this island park by hiking its trails (over 166 miles), paddling its inland waterways, exploring its rugged coast, or venturing into the depth of its shipwrecks. No pets or wheeled vehicles are allowed.

Resting in Lake Superior about 73 miles north of Houghton, the Isle is relatively untouched by outside influences and contains one large and over 200 small islands.

This wilderness provides habitat for an assortment of wildlife, such as moose and wolves, and it’s designated as an official Michigan Wildlife Viewing Area.

Call Isle Royale National Park at 906-482-0984, or e-mail isro_parkinfo@nps.gov

For other nearby attractions on the mainland, around Calumet, contact the Keweenaw Convention & Visitors Bureau at 906-337-4579, or e-mail info@keweenaw.info.

Standing Rock Native American Scenic Byway
The 86 miles of this Byway are within the borders of Standing Rock Reservation, offering rich cultural history and breathtaking scenery in both North and South Dakota.

The route begins on the Reservation’s northern edge near Cannonball, N.D., and ends near Mobridge, S.D. The route shares the stories of explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, their guide, Sakakawea, Sitting Bull, the Missouri River, and the ecology of the plains.

For information, call (701) 854-3861.

Wilderness Road Heritage Scenic Byway
Visitors come to the Wilderness Road Byway for a variety of reasons, but perhaps its most compelling feature is the bounty of historical sites. From American Indians to European pioneers to Civil War soldiers, many cultures left their mark in the area.

The Wilderness Road Byway begins at Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. Daniel Boone explored much of the surrounding area, and his legacy is everywhere. You’ll have a chance to retrace the steps of the intrepid Boone and subsequent pioneers on the Sheltowee Trace National Recreation Trail, part of which crosses the Byway.

The American Civil War was a defining moment in American history, and many of the battles were fought in Kentucky. The Cumberland Gap was a key transportation route, and was fought over throughout the war. The first battle of the Civil War was fought at Camp Wildcat, located along the Wilderness Road Heritage Highway. The re-enactment of this battle is always a popular event in autumn. For information, call 606- 677-6095.

Family Fun
Here are just a few more family trips:

• In New Mexico, check out the Billy the Kid Trail. Named after the notorious outlaw, this byway goes through the one-street town of Lincoln, where “the Kid” made his famous last escape. Kids will love visiting the hotel room where he slept. The Kid’s bullet hole is still visible in the courthouse wall.

• For a quirky stop, comic book fans will enjoy the self-proclaimed hometown of Superman in Metropolis, Ill., along the Ohio River Scenic Byway. It winds through Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.

• More-modern pioneers are honored along the roadways, too. Byway visitors can drive the historical 1965 route that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. took on the landmark Selma-to-Montgomery March in Alabama.

To learn more and find a national scenic byway on your vacation route, or for details on the byways listed here, visit www.byways.org.

Gettysburg National Military Park
On the green expanse of Pennsylvania’s Gettysburg National Military Park, follow the footsteps of Civil War soldiers who clashed in the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, as the fate of the nation hung in the balance. Imagine Pickett’s Charge on that sultry July day, which was doused in smoke and flames as the cannons spewed iron into the valley.

The country was in a fateful clash in July 1863 when the Union and Confederate armies met at the Battle of Gettysburg. The Union victory ended Confederacy hopes for independence.

Today, the 6,000-acre battlefield park preserves the historic scene of the battle, including many of the 22 farms that existed on the site in 1863.

“It’s a beautiful rural landscape, with a few additions. Because it was such an important event in American history, the soldiers that survived the Battle of Gettysburg much later in their lives worked to put monuments here so people would not forget what happened here,” says Katie Lawhon, the Park’s public affairs specialist.

The rural landscape is marked with more than 1,300 monuments, including 400 major sculptures, and over 400 Civil War cannons. “So, besides the beautifully preserved Civil War battlefield, Gettysburg is also the largest collection of outdoor sculpture in the world,” she says.

The site lends itself to walkers, bikers and even horseback riders as 36 miles of historic avenues lead visitors around the park. There is no entrance fee.

“Plan to spend some time walking on the battlefield. It’s when you step away from your car and get off the roadway and start walking into those fields or into some woods, that’s when you get a better sense of the soldier’s perspective,” Lawhon adds.

From mid-June to mid-August, park rangers lead walks throughout the battlefield, giving over 20 interpretive talks a day. Young visitors can “enlist” in the Army to learn about being a soldier during the Civil War or listen to related adventures.

Weekend encampments by Civil War re-enactors (April through October) also take visitors back in time.

Be sure to stop at the Soldiers’ National Cemetery where 3,500 Union soldiers were buried and former President Abraham Lincoln so eloquently entwined the tragic sacrifices of the battle with the hopeful message of creating a better nation during his two-minute “Gettysburg Address” on Nov. 19, 1863.

“It’s an amazing speech. It’s more amazing when you read it and think about it while walking amid the graves,” Lawhon says.

For more details on Gettysburg National Military Park, visit their Web site or call (717) 334-1124, Ext. 431.

Battle of the Little Bighorn
Stand atop the rolling prairie hills in Montana, where the winds blew across the last breath of Lt. Col. George A. Custer in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Imagine the desperate battle that changed the course of history for American Indians.

In 1876, two cultures clashed in a struggle on the rolling prairies of Montana in another historically-significant battle. Some 263 soldiers and other personnel of the U.S. Army died at the hands of several thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors.

The site is now preserved by the National Park Service as the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

“It was considered the high water mark of the Indian wars, just like Gettysburg was considered the high mark of the Civil War. This is where it reaches its height. A lot of important people were in the Battle,” says Ken Woody, chief of interpretation at the site.

“The site memorializes the last armed effort of the Northern Plains Indians to preserve their way of life,” Woody says.

Two areas of Little Bighorn, near Crow Agency, MT, encompass 765 acres–the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, where the battle ended, and five miles south to Reno-Benteen Battlefield, where it began.

At the visitor center, you can view some of Custer’s personal possessions, donated by his wife, and artifacts depicting the lives of American Indians and U.S. Army scouts.

Continue on the sidewalk about 50 yards to Last Stand Hill, “which is one of the most famous hills in the West, where Custer was found dead,” Woody says. A memorial on Last Stand Hill stands over the mass grave of the Seventh Cavalry soldiers, U.S. Army scouts, and other personnel killed in battle.

During the summer, ranger talks every 45 minutes focus on the battle and soldier and American Indian encampments.

“We really hope to break the myths that surround the battle,” Woody says. “We really want them to come away from here with a humanization of both sides. Everyone here was doing what they thought was right.”

For more details on the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, visit www.nps.gov/libi or call (406) 638-3204.

For more about other historical sites to visit across the country, visit the National Park Service Web site.