Grayling: the county seat and crossroads

Grayling is Crawford County’s only city and its county seat, and it punches above its size as the main town for a big stretch of north-central Michigan. It sits right where I-75 crosses M-72, halfway up the Lower Peninsula, which makes it a natural stop and a regional hub for shopping, services, and healthcare. Munson Healthcare Grayling Hospital — a small community hospital that’s been here since 1911 — serves Crawford and the neighboring counties, and Kirtland Community College’s main campus is in town, too.

The city grew up as a lumber town in the late 1800s, when Michigan’s white-pine boom was at its peak and Grayling shipped out timber by the trainload. It’s named, like the county, for the Michigan grayling, the native fish that once filled the Au Sable. Downtown runs along Michigan Avenue, with the river and the Au Sable River Canoe Marathon’s starting line a short walk away.

Grayling is also a four-season outdoors base. The paved Grayling Bicycle Turnpike links downtown to Hartwick Pines State Park in one direction and the Hanson Hills Recreation Area — skiing, tubing, and mountain biking — in the other. Winters here are long and snowy, which is good news if you like snowmobiling and cross-country skiing, and the rivers and state forest are at the doorstep year-round.