The most beautiful lake in the world. Torch Lake is the place to be!!! Crystal clear water that…read moregoes as far as the eye can see. Perfect for boats (sailboats included!), jet-skis, and swimmers. There's plenty of open water, as well as a sandbar for those looking for a more typical beach-vibe that has places to buy food and drinks. There's also convenient places to gas up boats located right on the lake. Truly, this lake is amazing. It can be a little chilly, which is to be expected. It's all natural! Of course the water will be cold from time to time :)

Torch Lake is well known in Michigan as being one of the most beautiful lakes in the state. It's…read morealso known for the massive sand bar that people flock to during summer holidays and weekends to party. My boyfriend and I are lucky to have friends whose parents live nearby and have a boat, so we went up for Fourth of July weekend. The lake is 19 miles long and is nearly 300 feet deep at its deepest point. The water is crystal clear and you can see many shades of blue ranging from bright turquoise to deep midnight - it's so beautiful! One of my favorite parts of being on the lake was checking out all the amazing homes. There are some stunning "cottages," that's for sure! We went over towards the notorious sandbar area to check it out from afar. It's definitely a sight to see with tons of boats and people everywhere! Lots of music and drinking. We even saw a float plane zooming around which was wild. We stayed a safe distance away and my old body got tired just watching the revelry! I'm definitely too old for those shenanigans but it was interesting to see. I hope I can come back to Torch Lake again in the future! If you get a chance to rent a boat or go out on this beautiful lake, I highly recommend it.

A nice state campground,well maintained very clean and right on the water. Plenty of large camping…read morespots with fire pits. The state park also has a large picnic area with grills over looking Higgins lake .

Both state parks are awesome on Higgins lake. North is a calmer park, more relaxing, family…read moreoriented. South is more active, on the lake and when camping

I came here to camp (car camping/tents) for the first camp of the summer and what a great kickoff…read moreto camping season it was for me and my group! Everything here was top notch and well maintained, probably above average from the many state park campgrounds that I have camped at through the years! What that tells me is that this is probably one of the more highly trafficked campgrounds, so there is a lot of maintenance done on it! This campground had the most "modern" bathrooms. Everything was automatic, the toilets, the sinks, the hand dryers. This is by main indicator that the bathrooms are the latest and greatest update! We also loved our campsite. We had a few of Higgins Lake peeking out from around other campsites from ours and were able to enjoy the lake breeze and sunset view from our campsite alone. It was also an easy walk to the lake, where there was a little playground/swing set AND a dog-friendly beach just right off of that playground area as well! Super dog-friendly, which was great because I brought my dog along! Lots of trailers/RVs at all the neighboring campsites, which is to be expected, especially of a more popular campground! This campground also had the most campsites that I've seen as of late (minus Ludington, I'd say)! South Higgins Lake State Park also had some great hiking trails that we took advantage of! Marl Lake Trail is a trail that is very customizable for any of your time/energy level needs - 1, 3, or 5 mile loops can be done on this trail! Other than the hiking and the camping (spent 3 days and 2 nights here), we didn't do much else at the state park, opting instead to rent a boat (from the South Higgins Lake State Park Store - see my review there for details on boat rentals and our experience!) to spend a whole day on the actual lake, so I can't attest to the other amenities this state park has to offer. But for our purposes on this wonderful weekend, it was darn near perfect and we really enjoyed our time!! Hope to be back soon! :)

Park store charges $5 for a skimpy scoop of ice cream. Old owners gave you much more for your…read moremoney. Got a bad case of swimmers itch yesterday. Would be helpful if the park had nice feet washers and showers to wash the parasites off but instead that have a dribbling high in the air "washer" where the ground is covers with piles of sand and essentially of no use. The grass is long which makes it a haven for bugs. The beach area is so small and crowded. Need to clear more edging for beach use. Overrun with boats and have to wade through them all to get to a deep enough area to swim in. Lucky if you get in the park at all on the weekends.

A very pleasant little State Park located on if course Ostego Lake. The view is spectacular. When…read moreyou drive in the beach is in front of you and is very nice. However what you can't see right away is there are no dogs allowed on that beach. Which we were told off by the staff. However it turns out they do have a Dog Beach. The bad news is, it is horribly labeled. Signs don't cost that much how about a little help! Anyways you follow the path North from the parking lot, starting behind the Bathrooms. You'll walk about a half mile and finally see the one sign Dog Beach with an arrow down the stairs. Once you get down the stairs you immediately see a sign that says no dogs on Beach, that's it. So you continue going North and about a quarter to a third of a mile down you'll see a dog baggy station, so I guess at that point you've arrived. Anyways the view here is also spectacular and they have benches. This us always a big plus to me and I wish all beaches had benches! The Dog loved it and thought everything smelled intriguing. Overall a 4 star review. Needs better signage, but a great place to spend some time. Would I return? Absolutely!

This park is local for me. The campgrounds are kept up very well. They have a Store for your…read moreconvenience. The lake is beautiful and they keep the sand clean. I like to sit in the wooden chairs in front of the Store and just kick back. With my license plate sticker, they just wave me on through. They had to do a lot of work after the freeze when all the branches came down so they haven't been as available while they do the cleanup. I'll always be back here.

The water is so shallow you can walk super far out! Not crowded! Peaceful! & Clear water! Be kind…read moreto the locals!

Very nice place to hang out and play or relax. Very clean, lots of amenities. I was impressed by…read moreall the playground toys and equipment. Very nice memorials as well

Two parks for the price of nothing! The north entrance leads to a very nice beach with great views…read more Their are some great rocks for people into rock collecting. Their are places to park and trails to hike. At the south entrance you park then there are trails to hike. 1 leads back to the north park. The other one leads to about a 5 minute hike to a stream view area. You'll see the stream almost right away, but in the distance and between foliage. It's a very nice stream, though nothing epic. There is then a 3 minute hike to the beach where the stream meets Lake Michigan. Again here the views are spectacular. Thetrails could be better marked and better upkept to get rid of low branches. The trail connecting the two parks is about 0.8 miles. Overall a 5 star review.

Well, this was a delight of a park - though the hike didn't work out too well. We came here for the…read moretrail/hike, but the trail was mostly washed out from rain and it became impassable the further in we went. This is actually right along a gorgeous little stretch of beach though, a nice spot for looking for charlevoix and petoskey stones. Gorgeous shore, plenty of distance to walk, dog-friendly - what could be better? Lots of fairly rocky shoreline, but some areas that were pretty sandy as well, for folks wanting a place to lie down. I will say the main area right near the parking lot was very crowded, but the further down you walked you could get to some pretty quiet areas. You can also go partly down the trail and connect to another stretch of beach that is very quiet.

I've been coming to this bait shop well over 10+ years! Amazing people with amazing knowledge of…read moretheir products and area! Never let you down, highly recommend to stop by if you're near Houghton lake!

The team at Lyman's was very helpful in guiding first time ice fishers like my brother and I. They…read morerecommended the bait for the type of fish we wanted to catch. They had a replacement combo for me when mine broke on the first day. They provided a ride out to the shanty that we rented and drilled the jigging and tip up holes around the shanty. Can't blame Lyman's for having little to no action on the hooks. Would go back for bait, but probably won't be back to use the shanty because of the location and lack of fish.

Such a cute park at the end of downtown Traverse City and the start/base of Old Mission peninsula!…read moreI wanted to find a park where I could pull up and get a great view just from the parking lot and Bryant Park delivered! They have a small parking lot (I think there's more parking the further up into Old Mission peninsula you go), but the parking lot I pulled up in is relatively small, but also on a Saturday evening, there were plenty of people coming and going and eventually I was able to get one of the spots that faces right up to the beach. I rolled my windows down and just enjoy the sounds of the waves, people running about, and read my book and ate my dinner while I waited for the sunset! It was wonderful and exactly what I wanted! Thanks Bryant Park! It looks like there's also a part of this beach that is dog friendly if you keep to the left side fencing of the beach from this parking lot and once it opens up closer to shore, keep left and there'll be a whole strip where the dogs are allowed to play. I love that!!

The beach was a lot of fun for the family and there was a playground near to the beach as well as…read morerestrooms. We went around 7pm in the evening and loved playing in the sand.

Lake Charlevoix was such a great place to spend a day out on the water. When we picked up our boat…read morerental in Charlevoix, they told us that we wouldn't have access to lake michigan, but would have access to all of Lake Charlevoix. Without looking at a map, I didn't realize how expansive the lake was. The beautiful (million-dollar) homes on the lakefront were stunning. There was so much space to explore and get in some time tubing. Whether you're in Boyne City, Charlevoix, or somewhere else, I'd definitely recommend spending some time out on the lake. We didn't try to find any lakeside restaurants/bars due to COVID, but I'm guessing there are some and would love to venture back soon and do some more exploring. Such a great place to spend some time on the water!

Beautiful lake with Restaurants, attraction, Festivals abound: East Jordan small town Main Street…read moreUSA, Boyne City with Markets, Music, Art and FRIDAY NIGHT STROLLS should not be missed! Up and coming place to be; here in the Jordan Boyne Valley Region! Warmer waters on the South Arm w/ public Beach @ EAST Jordan, THE LANDINGS Restaurant @ Ironton Ferry M-66. Follow M-66 up to Charlevoix and float back in time with the towns nostalgic charm! Shopping is King and White Fish by John Cross Fisheries Fresh and delicious! This is were you will find all you can eat White Fish, Perch, FRIES! Cookie the Lake around and you will find yourself 23 miles to the other end in Boyne City! WOW: sure makes for a great daily Road Trip! Think Breakfast- Lunch- Dinner- squeeze in a dessert to bring with like Michigan Fudge too! My opinion the best in Northwestern Michigan!

Great Lake fun for everyone. Not super packed and great for water skiing and tubing. Lots of good…read morefishing out here as well.

One of the things I hate most about the breakup with the ex is not getting to go visit his family's…read morelake cabins on Lake Bellaire. When I used to come up here I would be so surprised that the lake bottom was sandy and that the water was clear. What a shocker right?? This lake is the perfect size. It's small enough that as a good swimmer you can swim across it, but large enough that you can take out the ski boat and ski, pontoon boat and relax, or sail on the catamaran. Being part of the Chain of Lakes means that it's connected, through a series of rivers, to multiple other lakes so you can spend the day boating through nature areas and rivers to gain access to other local lakes. You can also boat your way over to the Dockside, park, and hang out on the porch. The other great thing about this lake is that it is located next to some really cute little towns like Bellaire and Alden. Day trips out to Traverse City (the only large city around) take about 45 minutes and Charlevoix is close as well. For a slightly longer trip away, about 2 1/2 hours, you could go to Mackinac Island which is an island filled with historic houses and no cars, only horse and buggies are allowed (in the summer at least). Finally, my favorite thing about Lake Bellaire is the fact that the majority of lake cabins are truly cabins, not monstrosities of the like that line the shores of southern lakes. You really feel like you are going back in time and that there is nothing better than a day at the lake minus tv and outside influences.