Topic
The Great Outdoors, page 4
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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Ocqueoc Falls, the Lower Peninsula's Only Waterfall
The Lower Peninsula's one and only named waterfall is a five-foot limestone cascade near Rogers City — and the first fully accessible, barrier-free waterfall in the country.
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One Michigan County Got 390 Inches of Snow in a Single Winter
The Keweenaw Peninsula got 390.4 inches of snow in the winter of 1978-79, likely the record east of the Rockies, marked by a giant roadside snow gauge.
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One of North America's Biggest Old-Growth Forests Is Hiding in the U.P.
The Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park — Michigan's largest, at about 60,000 acres — holds roughly 35,000 acres of old-growth forest, often called the largest such tract between the Adirondacks and the Rockies.
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One of the Oldest, Largest Living Things on Earth Is an Underground Mushroom in the U.P.
Beneath a forest near Crystal Falls lives the 'humongous fungus' — a single Armillaria gallica once billed as the largest living thing on Earth, now estimated at roughly 2,500 years old and 440 tons.
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Point Betsie: The Most-Photographed Light on the Lake
One of the most photographed lighthouses in the country, tucked in the dunes south of Sleeping Bear — and the last light on Lake Michigan to be tended by hand.
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Sable Falls
At the eastern edge of Pictured Rocks, Sable Falls drops about 75 feet of sandstone to a wild Lake Superior beach — down a staircase of around 168 steps.
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South Manitou Island: Giants and a Ghost Ship
Ancient cedars, a deep-water harbor, and a freighter wrecked just offshore on an island in Sleeping Bear Dunes.
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Stand Among Trees That Were Already Giants Before America Existed
Near Grayling stands a 49-acre grove of old-growth white pine — the largest in the Lower Peninsula and a glimpse of the forest that built Michigan's lumber fortune.
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That Pretty Beach Rock Is a 350-Million-Year-Old Coral
Michigan's state stone is a fossil — a 350-million-year-old coral reef you can pick up on a Lake Michigan beach, as long as you take less than 25 pounds.
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The 'Mirror of Heaven' — and the Shopkeeper Who Made Up Its Legends
Michigan's largest natural spring is so clear you can watch trout drift 40 feet down — and its romantic 'Ojibwe legends' were dreamed up by a five-and-dime owner to draw tourists.
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The American Robin — and Michigan's Other Bird
The cheerful robin has been Michigan's state bird since 1931 — but the Kirtland's warbler, which nests almost nowhere but Michigan, may be the most Michigan bird of all.
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The Black River Waterfalls
The Black River near Bessemer gives you five waterfalls in a row — Great Conglomerate, Potawatomi, Gorge, Sandstone, and Rainbow — strung along one of the great waterfall walks in the Midwest.
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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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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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