Maywood History Trail & Little Bay de Noc Recreation Area

This Hiawatha National Forest recreation area, close to Escanaba and Gladstone, has a mile of sandy beach in a natural setting, near a picnic area. There's a boat launch on Little Bay de Noc, famous for fishing, and an attractive rustic campground. An interpretive trail through a grove of huge hemlocks takes visitors back to excursion steamers and picnics before 1900. Sunsets over the water, with city lights in the distance, are beautiful.
Visitors from afar may well remember most the grove of giant, 200-year-old hemlocks. The wheelchair-accessible Maywood History Trail winds through the grove. Interesting interpretive panels with illustrations take visitors on a time trip to see how this beautiful, sheltered spot has been enjoyed for centuries. The name Maywood goes back to the 1880s, when the "hemlock cathedral" with its dense, high canopy made for a cool picnic and camping spot. Soon came a small resort hotel with cabins. Steamers made moonlight excursions from Gladstone. Immigrant associations held dances at the picnic grounds.

These hemlocks escaped damage from the frequent forest fires that swept across the pine plains to the north. The steep slope down to the shore here goes back to high lake levels as the glaciers were melting 3,200 years ago.

High school volunteers constructedd the trail, with research and excellent writing by Hiawatha archaeologist John Franzen.

Because of the evergreen grove's sparse undergrowth and the lack of leaf litter, small forest creatures are much easier to spot. Little frogs can be seen from a distance. The cool shade means birds are active even at noon. Many kinds of mushrooms can be spotted on the tidy forest floor in August and September. The rat-a-tat-tats of woodpeckers echo as they search for insects. Other tiny sounds, scamperings and chirps, are wonderful - until a jet ski breaks the spell.

Another trail, the attractive 1.2 mile Bayshore Trail goes along the shoreline from the southernmost camping loop to the boat launch at Hunter's Point on the developed recreation area's north end. Looping off it, the 1.3-mile White Pine Trail goes through some big pines mixed with aspen and oak.

On CR 513, six miles south of U.S. 2. Turn south onto 513 at the Hiawatha National Forest Rapid River Ranger Office 3 miles east of Rapid River. (906) 474-6442. Currently $3/day/car use fee, or $25/season. Wheelchair-accessible: all buildings & Maywood Trail.
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