Alcona's forest interior and the Au Sable

Away from the Lake Huron shore and Hubbard Lake, the rest of Alcona County is mostly woods — rolling forest, small lakes, and a big chunk of the Huron National Forest across the western and southwestern townships. If you want quiet land with public forest out the back door, this is the part of the county to look at.

The headliner is the Au Sable River, one of Michigan’s most famous trout and canoe rivers, which runs through the southwest corner. There it widens behind the Alcona Dam into Alcona Pond (also called Alcona Dam Pond or Alcona Lake), a roughly 950-acre reservoir good for walleye, pike, perch, bass, and trout. Right on the pond near the community of Glennie is Alcona Park, a large riverside park with hundreds of campsites and miles of shoreline. Nearby, the Hoist Lakes Foot Travel Area is a big, quiet tract of national forest set aside for foot travel only — hiking, backpacking, and cross-country skiing, with no motors or bikes allowed.

For motorized recreation, the forest has separate ORV and snowmobile routes (the Hoist Lakes area stays non-motorized). Hunting is a way of life out here — deer, turkey, grouse, and woodcock — and there’s a lot of public land to roam. Homes are rural and spread out, on wells and septic (see the well-and-septic note), and many sit on big wooded parcels. It’s about as peaceful as Michigan gets.