Hiawatha National Forest

Spanning nearly 895,000 acres across Michigan's Upper Peninsula with the rare distinction of frontage on three Great Lakes -- Superior, Michigan, and Huron -- Hiawatha National Forest features pristine shoreline, historic lighthouses, towering sand dunes, and five designated National Wild and Scenic Rivers including the Indian, Sturgeon, Whitefish, Carp, and Pine Rivers. The forest provides access to Grand Island National Recreation Area, a 13,000-acre island in Lake Superior offering sea kayaking, mountain biking, and dramatic sandstone cliffs reminiscent of nearby Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.\n\nThe forest's diverse habitats range from Lake Superior's windswept rocky shores and boreal spruce-fir forests to extensive wetlands and northern hardwood stands of sugar maple, yellow birch, and hemlock. Black bears, gray wolves, moose, bald eagles, and common loons thrive throughout the forest, while its rivers support healthy populations of brook trout, steelhead, and Atlantic salmon. Hiawatha offers outstanding paddling on both inland rivers and Great Lakes shoreline, with backcountry camping accessible by canoe along miles of undeveloped lakeshore. Winter recreation includes extensive snowmobile and cross-country ski trail systems that take advantage of the Upper Peninsula's abundant snowfall.