Arcadia Lake

Arcadia Lake is a small, sheltered harbor with a way out to Lake Michigan. It covers about 275 acres and reaches about 28 feet at its deepest. The north end, above the Point Arcadia subdivision, and its canals are slow no-wake; the rest has no local limits, so you can ski, tube and cruise there. It sits at the village of Arcadia on the northern Manistee County shore, just off the M-22 scenic route.

Start at the Veterans Memorial Marina. The township runs it, with transient slips, gas and diesel and a pump-out, a two-lane launch next door for trailered boats and a kayak put-in at the park beside it. From there, boats can run the dredged inlet channel out to Lake Michigan.

That channel is the lake’s whole story. In the lumber era this was Bar Lake. Work on a channel and harbor to Lake Michigan began in 1892, and when it opened in 1893 the lake became a sheltered harbor for Great Lakes shipping. Hundreds of large vessels used it in the years that followed. Today it is a much quieter place.

Save time for the land around the village. Two Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy preserves flank it. Arcadia Marsh, a 470-acre wetland just south of town, has a boardwalk trail that birders like, and only non-motorized boats are allowed. To the north, Arcadia Dunes, the C.S. Mott Nature Preserve, has trails and Lake Michigan overlooks.