Topic
The Great Outdoors, page 3
From Great Lakes shoreline to waterfalls, trails, state parks, and quiet two-tracks, Michigan was made for getting outside. These notes connect the outdoor places to the communities around them.
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The Brook Trout
Michigan's state fish is a jewel-colored native of cold, clean water — and a stand-in for the trout-fishing heritage that gave the country Trout Unlimited.
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The Dwarf Lake Iris
Michigan's state wildflower is a tiny, vivid blue-violet iris that grows almost nowhere else on Earth — only along the northern shores of Lakes Michigan and Huron.
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The Les Cheneaux Islands: A Wooden-Boat Paradise
Thirty-six islands, a maze of sheltered channels, and the country's largest antique wooden boat show every August.
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The Painted Turtle
The painted turtle became Michigan's state reptile in 1995 — chosen by a class of Niles fifth-graders, which might make it the most Michigan symbol of all.
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The Presque Isle Pair: The Oldest and the Tallest You Can Climb
Two Lake Huron lighthouses a mile apart north of Alpena — the oldest you can still climb and the tallest open to the public on the Great Lakes — with a friendly ghost story to match.
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The White-Tailed Deer
No symbol shapes the Michigan calendar like the white-tailed deer — state game mammal since 1997, and the reason much of the state pauses for two weeks each November.
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The Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale Walked There Across a Bridge of Ice
The wolves and moose of remote Isle Royale arrived across the water — and a 68-year study still tracks their rise and fall, with wolves now near a record high and moose crashing.
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Walk a Quarter-Mile Through the Treetops — 40 Feet Up
The Canopy Walk at Whiting Forest of Dow Gardens in Midland is the longest in the U.S. — a quarter-mile of treetop bridges up to 40 feet high.
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Why Is Michigan Water So... Different? (No Sharks, No Salt, and "Lake-Effect" Everything)
The Great Lakes are freshwater — no salt, no sharks — and the same lakes that bury Michigan's west side in 'lake-effect' snow also create its cherry-and-apple fruit belt.
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