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The Great Outdoors

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The Great Outdoors notes

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Deer hunting in Michigan: the 2026 rulesMichigan's deer seasons, licenses, baiting rules, and disease zones — including the sweeping 2026 changes and the one-buck rule arriving in 2027.
Downriver's secret: an international wildlife refuge at the front doorNorth America's only international wildlife refuge grew from U.S.-Canadian cooperation and protects more than 30 separate habitat parcels along the lower Detroit River and western Lake Erie.
Dune buggies and asparagus: two sides of Oceana CountyThe DNR gives Silver Lake's 450-acre ORV area a rare distinction, while Oceana County treats asparagus as part of its civic identity.
Elk hunting in Michigan: the rarest tag in the stateYes, Michigan has wild elk — roughly 700–1,000 in the northeast Lower Peninsula by recent DNR surveys — and an elk tag is the hardest draw in Michigan hunting. Here's how the lottery works.
Farmington Hills' green heart (and the festival next door)Heritage Park gives Farmington Hills 200 wooded acres with a nature center and sledding hills, and the neighboring Farmington Founders Festival has run for generations.
Fishing the Bays de NocGladstone and Escanaba sit on the Bays de Noc, where DNR surveys follow walleye, smallmouth bass, yellow perch, and other Great Lakes fish.
Found a baby animal? Read this firstThat fawn is not abandoned. The species-by-species guide to baby wildlife, the real emergency signs, and the legal way to help when help is actually needed.
Furbearers, coyotes, and trapping in Michigan: the fine-print licenseMichigan's fur harvester license, the year-round coyote framework, night-hunting rules, and the five species only residents may take.
Grand Island, the wild island off MunisingHalf a mile off Munising lies Grand Island -- about 13,500 acres of Lake Superior woodland with no cars, reachable by ferry, once owned by an iron company and now a national recreation area.
Grand Marais and the Grand Sable DunesGrand Marais is the eastern doorway to Pictured Rocks, with the Grand Sable Dunes, Sable Falls, the Log Slide, and Au Sable Light spread along H-58.
Grand Mere: three hidden lakes behind the dunesGrand Mere State Park near Stevensville hides three interdunal lakes behind Lake Michigan's dunes — a National Natural Landmark kept deliberately wild.
Great Lakes beach and water safety: the postcard that saves livesThe flag system, the pier rule, and Flip-Float-Follow — the short list of knowledge that keeps families safe on the Great Lakes, written for a parent on a beach towel.
Gun Lake and Yankee Springs: Barry County's playgroundBarry County centers on 2,600-acre Gun Lake and the 5,000-acre Yankee Springs Recreation Area — West Michigan's favorite lakes-and-trails weekend.
Hardy Dam and Hardy Pond: access, water levels, and buyer checksHardy Pond is a 3,971-acre reservoir across Newaygo and Mecosta counties. Here is how access, drawdowns, shoreline rights, and dam updates fit together.
Hines Park: seventeen green miles through the western suburbsEdward Hines Drive strings 25 parks along the Middle Rouge from Dearborn through Dearborn Heights, Westland, and Livonia to Northville — western Wayne County's shared backyard.
Ice fishing in Michigan: same license, a few special rules, one big truthMichigan ice fishing rules: lines and tip-ups, shanty labeling and removal deadlines, spearing traditions — and the safety truth that no ice is safe ice.
Indian Lake, the UP's big friendly lakeJust west of Manistique spreads Indian Lake -- the fourth-largest inland lake in the Upper Peninsula, big, shallow, and warm, with a classic state park on its shores.
Isle Royale, the national park almost nobody visitsFar out in Lake Superior -- but still part of Keweenaw County -- Isle Royale is the least-visited national park in the Lower 48: a roadless wilderness of wolves, moose, and water reachable only by boat or seaplane.
J.W. Wells State Park, where the old forest survivedOn three miles of Green Bay shore stands J.W. Wells State Park -- built around a stand of virgin timber that survived the lumber boom, donated by a lumberman's own children in 1925.
Lake Gogebic, the U.P.'s biggest inland lakeLake Gogebic is the largest inland lake in the Upper Peninsula -- a fifteen-mile fishing paradise so big it sits in two counties and two time zones at once, ringed by the Ottawa National Forest.
Lake Gogebic's quieter, northern halfThe Upper Peninsula's biggest inland lake, Lake Gogebic, reaches up into southwestern Ontonagon County -- where the village of Bergland sits on its northern shore, an hour and a time zone away from the lake's southern end.
Lake sturgeon and the Black Lake season: Michigan's dinosaur fishLake sturgeon have unusually tight Michigan fishing rules — one per year, short harvest lists, 24-hour registration — and one remarkable exception: Black Lake's minutes-long winter spearing season.
Menominee: river rapids, a Green Bay shore, and the U.P.'s mildest cornerMenominee County runs from the wild Menominee River to Green Bay's M-35 beach drive — the warmest, most farmable corner of the Upper Peninsula.
Metal detecting, gold panning, and the artifact lineWhere detecting is welcome in state parks, the show-your-finds rule, Michigan's modest-but-real gold, and the line that never moves: artifacts and shipwrecks stay.
Michigan's six scramble areas (and the Silver Lake rulebook)The open-riding playgrounds of Michigan off-roading — Silver Lake's dunes, Holly Oaks, The Mounds, St. Helen, Bull Gap, and Black Lake — and the extra rules each one layers on.
Morel hunting in Michigan: rules, maps, and mannersMay is morel month. The rules (personal use, no selling public-land finds), the DNR's burn-area map, the false-morel safety check, and the sacred secrecy of spots.
Mount Arvon, the top of MichiganTucked in the Huron Mountains of Baraga County, Mount Arvon is the highest point in Michigan -- a quiet, forested summit at the end of a rough logging road, with a mailbox at the top for visitors to sign.
Newberry, Michigan's Moose CapitalNewberry is Luce County's county seat and only incorporated community. Its Moose Capital title is official, but it is not a promise that a moose will appear.
Ninety-two miles, no cars: the White Pine Trail townsThe Fred Meijer White Pine Trail runs 92 miles from Grand Rapids' edge to Cadillac, giving a string of small towns a linear state park for a main street.
Out of Monroe's harbors, the world's best walleye waterWestern Lake Erie's walleye fishery is so productive that anglers call it the Walleye Capital of the World — and Monroe County's harbors are Michigan's front door to it.
Paddling Michigan: kayaks, canoes, and paddleboardsPaddlecraft skip almost all the apparatus — no registration, no certificate — so the rules that remain are about water, cold, and judgment. Here they are.
Peninsula Point: a lighthouse and ten thousand butterfliesAt the wild tip of the Stonington Peninsula stands an 1865 lighthouse you can climb for free -- and every fall, clouds of monarch butterflies gather here before crossing Lake Michigan.
Petoskey stones and beach treasure: the collector's rulesThe 25-pound rule, the 93-pound legend, and the field guide to Michigan's beach treasures — Petoskeys, Charlevoix stones, glowing Yooperlites, agates, copper, and Leland Blue.
Pictured Rocks, the first national lakeshoreJust east of Munising, Lake Superior meets the multicolored sandstone cliffs of Pictured Rocks -- the first national lakeshore in the United States, best seen from the water.
Piers Gorge, the U.P.'s wildest waterSouth of Norway, the Menominee River squeezes through Piers Gorge in a run of roaring rapids -- some of the fastest water in Michigan or Wisconsin, and a genuine whitewater-rafting destination.
Pine Mountain has sent ski jumpers flying since 1939Construction began in 1937, the first competition came in 1939, and Pine Mountain now hosts FIS Continental Cup meets. FIS reported Clemens Aigner's 144-meter jump as a new hill record in 2020.
Pointe Mouillee: a rebuilt marsh at Lake Erie's edgeBerlin Township borders Pointe Mouillee State Game Area, one of North America's great freshwater marsh restorations and host of a waterfowl festival running since the 1940s.
Presque Isle Park and Sugarloaf, Marquette's outdoor gemsTwo of Marquette's best-loved spots sit minutes from downtown: Presque Isle Park, a forested headland ringed by ancient black cliffs on Lake Superior, and Sugarloaf Mountain, a short climb to a sweeping view of the whole shoreline.
Rapids, river road, and a trail that keeps growing: Scio's Huron riverfrontScio Township's stretch of the Huron River has Delhi Metropark's rapids, canoe launches, and newly built miles of the Border-to-Border Trail.
Saginaw Bay's walleye: a comeback for the record booksSaginaw Bay's once-collapsed walleye fishery recovered so completely that it's now ranked among the best in the country, with millions of fish and a busy charter fleet.
Salmon in the river, 92 miles of trail: downtown Rockford's backyardRockford's downtown sits where the Fred Meijer White Pine Trail crosses the Rogue River — salmon and steelhead below the dam, and one of Michigan's longest rail-trails out the door.
Sleeping Bear, Pictured Rocks, and Isle Royale: the federal marqueesMichigan's three national-park-caliber destinations run on federal systems — your Recreation Passport doesn't work there, and here's what does.
Small game hunting in Michigan: what your base license already coversRabbits, squirrels, grouse, pheasants, woodcock and more — the seasons, limits, and the few extra stamps and licenses small game requires.
Snowmobiling in Michigan: registration, trail permits, and rulesSnowmobiles aren't ORVs in Michigan law — different registration, a $65 trail permit for 2026-27, and 6,000-plus miles of groomed trails, mostly volunteer-maintained.
State forest campgrounds: Michigan's 140 best-kept secretsAbout 140 rustic campgrounds on lakes and rivers most people have never heard of — cheap, first-come, and never part of the reservation race.
Sterling State Park: Michigan's only state park on Lake ErieFrenchtown Township is home to Sterling State Park — a mile of Lake Erie beach, lagoons full of birds, and a trail link to the national battlefield park.
Stony Creek: 4,400 acres of up-north, twenty minutes from homeStony Creek Metropark gives northern Macomb County 4,400 acres of lake, beaches, and trails — the suburbs' own piece of up north.
Tahquamenon Falls from the Newberry sideThe Upper and Lower falls are in Luce County north of Newberry. DNR calls the Upper Falls Michigan's largest waterfall and one of the largest in the eastern United States.
Tahquamenon Falls State Park from the Paradise sideThe park crosses Chippewa and Luce counties. Paradise is its eastern gateway, while DNR maps place the Upper and Lower falls west of the county line in Luce County.
The Humongous Fungus: Crystal Falls' giant underground neighborIn the woods near Crystal Falls lives one of the largest and oldest living things on Earth -- a single fungus, sprawling for acres underground, that the town throws a festival for every summer.
The Huron: a National Water Trail runs through itThe Huron River is a designated National Water Trail, with more than a hundred paddleable miles and liveries, launches, and river towns strung along it.
The Ledges: Eaton County's slice of rock-climbing countryGrand Ledge's roughly 300-million-year-old sandstone borders river trails at Fitzgerald Park and designated climbing at Oak Park.
The Lower Peninsula's biggest state park is near ChelseaWaterloo Recreation Area covers more than 20,000 acres in Jackson and Washtenaw counties, making it the Lower Peninsula's largest state park.
The Manistique LakesThe southwest corner of Luce County opens onto the Manistique Lakes -- big, fish-filled waters straddling the Luce-Mackinac line, anchored by Big Manistique Lake.
The Porcupine Mountains, Michigan's biggest wild parkThe Porkies are Michigan's largest state park: roughly 60,000 acres with about 35,000 acres of primary forest, wild rivers, trails, and Lake Superior shoreline.
The Seney National Wildlife RefugeMore than 95,000 acres of marsh, bog, and forest make up the Seney National Wildlife Refuge -- a 1935 recovery story that's now one of the best places in Michigan to see swans, loons, and eagles.
The university's gardens are in the township: MatthaeiThe University of Michigan's Matthaei Botanical Gardens — conservatory, bonsai collection, and miles of free trails — sits in Ann Arbor Township.
Thirty-four lakes in one township: Oakland's lake countryWaterford alone holds 34 named lakes, and Cass Lake — southeast Michigan's largest — spreads between Waterford and West Bloomfield, with a state-park beach on its shore.
Trail etiquette: how to ride right in MichiganMichigan's trails run on volunteer clubs and tolerant neighbors. Here's the unwritten code, written down — because every closed trail closed for the same reason.
Trout and salmon in Michigan: streams, Great Lakes, and the runsMichigan's trout and salmon fishery: stream types, flies-only water, Great Lakes limits, fall runs, and the DNR map for checking a specific water.

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