A four-season outdoor county

Osceola County is the kind of place where the outdoors is always close. A big share of the county is public land. Much of it is part of the Pere Marquette State Forest. So hunting, hiking, and getting lost in the woods are easy to come by. The Osceola-Missaukee Grasslands State Game Area sits up north. It’s a popular spot for bird and small-game hunting.

Rivers run all through it. There’s the Muskegon River, good for fishing, canoeing, and tubing. There’s the Hersey River. And there’s the Pine River. It starts in the county’s northern townships. Downstream it becomes one of Michigan’s fastest, most popular canoeing rivers. Then add the two big rail-trails that cross at Reed City. Add the DNR’s motorcycle-only Evart trail too. Now there’s something for every season. You get biking and paddling in summer, hunting in fall, and snowmobiling and skiing in winter.

For a lot of buyers, that easy access to woods, water, and trails is the whole reason to be here. So it’s worth checking how close a property sits. Look at the distance to public land, a river, or a trailhead.