Licenses and Passes for Visitors

Most trips up north need at least one pass. Fishing? You need a Michigan license if you are 17 or older. Driving into a state park? You need a Recreation Passport. Visiting Sleeping Bear Dunes? That is a federal park with its own entrance pass.

Here is what each one covers if you are visiting from out of town or out of state, and where to get it before you arrive.

Fishing licenses

Who needs one. Anyone 17 or older who fishes public waters in Michigan needs a license from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Kids under 17 fish free but still follow every rule. One catch for parents: if you are actively helping your child fish, you need a license of your own. A license also covers going after amphibians, crustaceans and reptiles, not only fish.

Your options. Most licenses come in resident and nonresident versions:

• Annual all-species license, in resident and nonresident versions. Michigan’s license year runs from March 1 through March 31 of the following year.
• Daily all-species license, for residents and nonresidents, valid for 24 hours. You choose the date and time it begins when you buy it.
• Voluntary youth license, an optional all-species license for residents or nonresidents under 17.
• Senior annual license, for Michigan residents only (65 and older, or legally blind).
• Hunt/fish combination licenses, in resident and nonresident versions, which bundle annual fishing with hunting licenses.

There is no 72-hour fishing license, so for a short trip the 24-hour daily license is the one to look at. Fees for every option are on the DNR license information page.

Where to buy. Three ways:

• Online through eLicense at Michigan.gov/DNRLicenses.
• In the free Michigan DNR Hunt Fish app, which can also store your licenses and look up regulations on your phone.
• In person at a store that sells DNR licenses.

Free Fishing Weekends. Twice a year you can fish for two days with no license at all, and that includes out-of-state visitors. All other fishing rules still apply. The winter weekend is the Saturday and Sunday of Presidents Day weekend and the summer weekend as the Saturday and Sunday after the first full week of June. Check the Free Fishing Weekend page for the current dates.

Know the rules. Seasons, size limits and possession limits are in the Michigan Fishing Regulations, which the DNR publishes each year on its regulation summaries page and in the Hunt Fish app. Read the current edition before you fish.

Recreation Passport

The Recreation Passport is the pass on your car for Michigan’s state-run outdoor places. It covers motor vehicle entry to Michigan state parks and recreation areas, state forest campgrounds, DNR boating access sites and state trails. You must display it when you enter or park at a state park or recreation area, a state forest campground, a designated boating access site, or a state trailhead or trail staging area. It does not cover camping, lodging, harbor reservation or shelter rental fees, which are charged separately.

If your plates are from out of state, you buy the nonresident Recreation Passport. It comes in two main forms:

• Annual, which expires December 31 of the year you buy it. The sticker must be permanently attached to the lower passenger-side corner of the windshield.
• Daily, which allows entry and re-entry to any state park for that day.

There is also a towed-vehicle pass for a second vehicle unhitched from an RV during a state park camping stay (the RV itself needs a nonresident annual passport) and a daily pass for large commercial vehicles.

Michigan-registered vehicles are handled differently: residents usually add the passport when they renew their license plate with the Secretary of State, and there is no resident daily option.

Where to buy (nonresident).

• Online at MiDNRReservations.com/Store, annual passes only, with a processing time of two to three weeks.
• At Michigan state parks and recreation areas (annual, daily and towed-vehicle passes).
• At most DNR customer service centers (annual only, cash or check).
• Through self-registration envelopes and fee pipes at many state parks, boating access sites and state forest campgrounds.

When you do not need one. Exemptions include entering on foot or by bicycle, snowmobiles (though a vehicle towing a snowmobile trailer still needs a passport to enter or park), and the two Free Fishing Weekends each year.

Fees are posted on the DNR’s Recreation Passport page.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore entrance passes

Sleeping Bear Dunes is a national park site, so your Michigan Recreation Passport does not work here. Every visitor needs a federal entrance pass (details on the NPS fees page).

What kind of pass.

• Vehicle pass: covers the driver and everyone riding in the vehicle, and lasts seven days. Motorcycles have their own seven-day pass.
• Per-person pass: for anyone 16 or older arriving on foot or by bicycle. Children under 16 do not need a pass.
• Park annual pass: good only at Sleeping Bear Dunes.
• America the Beautiful passes: the national passes, including resident, nonresident, senior, military, access, fourth grade and volunteer versions, are accepted. Bring photo ID along with the pass.

Keep the pass where it can be seen: a car without one on display can be fined.

Where to buy.

• Online at Recreation.gov, where the seven-day pass can be bought up to six months ahead. A digital America the Beautiful pass bought there can be saved to a phone and used right away.
• In person at the Philip A. Hart Visitor Center, D. H. Day Campground, or the Platte River Campground and Ranger Station. These staffed spots are cashless, so bring a card.
• At a few area businesses that the NPS lists on its fees page.

Fee amounts are on the NPS fees page.

Boating

Boater safety education. If you were born on or after July 1, 1996, you need a boating safety certificate (also called a boater education card) to run a boat with a motor over 6 horsepower. People born before July 1, 1996, can operate a motorboat without one. Certificates can be earned through a classroom course or an approved online course, both listed on the DNR safety certificate page.

The DNR’s age rules add limits for younger operators:

• Under 12: may run a boat of up to 6 horsepower without restriction. From over 6 up to 35 horsepower, they need a safety certificate on board and direct supervision on board by someone at least 16. Over 35 horsepower is not allowed.
• Personal watercraft (jet skis and similar): no one under 14 may operate one. At 14 and 15, an operator needs a safety certificate and must have a parent, guardian or designated adult (21 or older) on board, or within 100 feet on their own personal watercraft. At 16 and older, a certificate is required unless the operator was born on or before December 31, 1978.

Bringing a boat from another state. Boats used here only temporarily do not need Michigan registration. The Michigan Department of State puts a number on it: a boat registered in another state can use Michigan waters for up to 60 days, after which it needs a Michigan registration. A boat that is kept or anchored in Michigan and used only on Michigan waters for more than 60 days must be registered here.

Clean, Drain, Dry. Michigan law requires boaters to remove all aquatic plants from boats, equipment and trailers before putting them in Michigan waters. Before hauling a boat over land, you must:

• Pull all drain plugs from bilges, ballast tanks and live wells.
• Drain all water from live wells and bilges.
• Make sure the boat, trailer and towing vehicle are free of aquatic plants and other organisms.

Breaking this law is a state civil infraction that can bring a fine.

Bait rules. State law bars releasing baitfish into any Michigan waters. Fish you catch yourself may be used as bait only in the lake or stream where you caught them (or a connected water the fish could reach on its own), and fish you release must go back into that same water or a freely connected one. Leftover bait, whether bought or collected, belongs in the trash or on land, not in the water.

VHS. Viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) is a serious fish virus found in Lake Michigan and other Great Lakes waters. To slow it down, buy and use only baitfish certified as disease-free, never move live fish from one body of water to another, and disinfect bait buckets between uses. Moving infected water in live wells and bilges is one of the ways it spreads. To protect state hatchery water, the DNR prohibits the use of baitfish and fish eggs on parts of Brundage, Kinney and Stanley creeks in Benzie County, along with some waters in the Upper Peninsula.

Snowmobile and ORV

Snowmobile trail permits. Riding on public land in Michigan takes a snowmobile trail permit, whether you live here or not. The permit is valid for one year, from October 1 through September 30, and the sticker goes on the front half of the sled, directly above or below the headlight. State-designated trails are open December 1 through March 31, with grooming when there is enough snow.

Snowmobile registration. Nonresidents do not have to register their sleds in Michigan if they display a valid registration from their home state or province. A sled used only on frozen public waters for ice fishing still needs registration but is exempt from the trail permit.

Where to buy a snowmobile permit. Online through eLicense (the sticker arrives by mail in 10 to 15 business days), online through the Michigan Snowmobile ORV Association, or in person at DNR license agents and dealers. If you are buying close to your trip, the in-person option avoids the mailing wait.

ORV license and trail permit. Off-road vehicles need two separate items:

• An ORV license is required to ride eligible county roads, state forest roads open to ORVs, eligible national forest roads and the frozen surface of public waters.
• An ORV trail permit is required on top of the license on state-designated ORV trails and scramble areas.

Both run for one year, from April 1 through March 31. Michigan does not require ORV registration, and you do not need a Michigan title to ride here as a nonresident. Riders under 16 need an approved ORV safety course, must carry the ORV safety certificate and must be under direct visual supervision by an adult. The DNR’s ORV permit page includes a chart showing which vehicles need what on each type of route.

Where to buy ORV permits. Online through eLicense (sticker mailed in 10 to 15 days), in the Michigan DNR Hunt Fish app, or in person at DNR license agents and dealers. Renting? Most Michigan ORV rental businesses already include the license and trail permit with the rental. During the summer “Three Free” weekend, which coincides with the summer Free Fishing Weekend, residents and visitors can ride without an ORV license or trail permit.

Fees for snowmobile and ORV permits are on the DNR pages linked above.

Michigan state harbors

Michigan’s state harbor network has 18 DNR-managed harbors and 64 grant-in-aid harbors. Transient slips at most of them are booked through MiDNRReservations.com under the “Harbor” tab. Some grant-in-aid harbors take reservations their own way, so check the DNR’s interactive harbor map, linked from its Boating the Great Lakes page, for each harbor’s booking details. Harbor fees are separate from the Recreation Passport.