Island Lake: the state park where hot-air balloons take off

On a still summer morning the field off Kensington Road in Green Oak Township sometimes fills with color — crews unrolling nylon, fans roaring, and then the slow lift of a hot-air balloon over the trees. Island Lake Recreation Area keeps a launch field set aside for exactly that, one of the few state parks in Michigan where balloonists have a regular place to rise.

The park runs to roughly 4,000 acres, which makes it one of the bigger pieces of public land this close to Detroit. The Huron River winds through the middle of it, and you can put a canoe or kayak in and paddle a lazy stretch with marked access points — part of the Huron River Water Trail that threads down from Kensington Metropark, just upstream. The two parks share a boundary and a paved trail, so on a bike you can roll from one into the other without touching a road.

Land-side, the riding is the draw. A long loop of mountain-bike singletrack winds through oak and rolling glacial hills, and a paved path makes an easier circuit for families and road bikes. There’s a swimming area on the lake the park is named for, a designated shooting range tucked off on its own, and a canoe-in campsite for people who want to sleep where they paddled.

It is the kind of place that feels much farther from the city than it is. You can spend a morning watching balloons drift east on the wind, then trade the field for a shaded river bend and a heron standing in the shallows, all within sight of the I-96 corridor.