Indian Lake, the UP's big friendly lake

A few miles west of Manistique the woods open onto Indian Lake, the fourth-largest inland lake in the Upper Peninsula — about six miles long, three miles wide, and covering some 8,400 acres. People have lived on its shores for a very long time: surveyor records from 1850 describe Native American families living in log cabins near the lake’s outlet, back when it was known as M’O’Nistique Lake.

What makes Indian Lake special for families is its shape. The whole lake is shallow — almost all of it under fifteen feet deep — so the water warms up nicely in summer and the sandy drop-offs stay gentle, which is rare for the UP. It’s a fishing lake through and through, with perch, walleye, northern pike, smallmouth bass, muskie, and even sturgeon, and it’s fed in part by the cold, clear outflow of Kitch-iti-kipi, the Big Spring, just up at its northwest corner.

Indian Lake State Park covers two separate units on the lake’s shores, with more than two hundred campsites, picnic shelters built by the Civilian Conservation Corps back in the 1930s, a swim beach, and a paved lakeside trail. A Recreation Passport gets you in; details at michigan.gov/dnr.