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Hunts' Guide to Michigan's UPPER PENINSULA

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WATERSMEET
POINTS
OF INTEREST

Sylvania Wilderness Area. This lake-studded 30-square-mile tract is a rare treasure: an old-growth forest that escaped the logger's ax, and lakes where motors are banned. ... more

Ottawa Visitor Center. The Ottawa National Forest info center also has an excellent nature bookstore, interesting exhibits, and anature trail ... more

Clark Lake and Clark Lake Trail. Convenient auto access up to the motor-free Sylvania Wilderness Area's Clark Lake with a long, sandy beach, good birding, and an 8-mile trail around the lake through the old-growth forest. ... more

Imp Lake Interpretive Trail. This memorable 1.5-mile path leads from an inviting swimming area into an old-growth hemlock forest ... more

Sylvania Outfitters. Veteran outdoorsman Bob Zelinski shares a wealth of information about the area, rents canoes, kayaks, skis, and snowshoes, and refers customers to fishing guides ... more

Mex-I-Min-E Falls & Campground. A short, powerful cascade in a quiet, pretty woodland spot with primitive camping. ... more

Ontonagon River Middle Branch. This pretty, underdeveloped brook trout stream can be paddled year-round. Rent a canoe. It's a fine first whitewater trip ... more

Sylvania Outfitters Cross-Country Ski Trails. 20 miles of groomed cross-country ski trails in the Sylvania Wildeerness Area, much of it over hilly terrain ... more

Watersmeet Rails to Trails. This old railroad grade leads through many habitats to downtown Land O'Lakes ... more

Ajibikoka Falls. Difficult to get to, this falls is one of the finest in the Watersmeet region ... more

WATERSMEET

Ottawa Visitor Center

A beautiful building houses the Ottawa National Forest information staff and interesting exhibits, including a diorama with a mounted wolf, mounted barred and great horned owls, and the small but vicious fisher. The Lac Vieux Desert Tribe did the exhibit about its culture.

The excellent nature store has books, clothing, Sylvania maps, and other items. It's run by the nonprofit Ottawa Interpretive Association. Proceeds fund programs and exhibits at the visitor center and pay for the informative free brochures available here on wildflowers and ferns of the Ottawa National Forest. Summer evening programs, given weekly at least, are typically on Thursday at 7 p.m. Central Time. Off-season nature programs are on Saturdays, funding depending. See www.fs.fed.us/r9/ottawa/ and go to "Ottawa Interpretive Association" for schedules.

At any time visitors can request to see audio-visual programs in the auditorium. Ones about wolves and bats are especially popular.

Don't overlook the 1/4 mile nature trail (wheelchair-accessible) that leads up from the parking lot. Its theme is the interconnectedness of the natural world: plants, water, deer, songbirds, watersheds, and human history. An 8-mile trail on an old railroad grade goes south from 100 yards east of the parking lot to the public library in downtown Land O'Lakes. (See below.)

At the southeast corner of U.S. 2 and U.S. 45 just outside Watersmeet. Entrance roads from both highways. Open 9-5 Central Time. Open daily from mid-May thru September. Otherwise open Wed-Sat. (906) 358-4724. www.fs.fed.us/r9/ottawa/ Wheelchair-accessible

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