Green Lake

Green Lake gives you room to boat and paddle, lake trout to fish for and a rustic campsite in Interlochen State Park. It is an all-sports lake of about 2,000 acres, up to 102 feet deep, with no local limits, so skiing and tubing are fine. The park’s rustic campground is named for the lake, and the launch, beach and paddlesport rentals in the park get you on the water.

It sits at Interlochen in southwestern Grand Traverse County, side by side with Duck Lake. The strip of land between them holds Interlochen State Park, which the state acquired in 1917 and the Legislature established in 1919 as Michigan’s first state park. Walk among the trees: some of the big old-growth red and white pines the park was created to protect still stand there. If you want to rent a kayak or paddleboard, head to the beach house on Duck Lake next door.

Anglers come for lake trout, along with smallmouth bass, northern pike and panfish. In winter, smelt and pike are the usual targets through the ice.

Plan an evening across the park’s northern boundary at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, which keeps a year-round calendar of concerts and events.

Green Lake is also where the Betsie River begins. From here it flows west across three counties to Betsie Lake and Lake Michigan at Frankfort, a route protected under the state’s Natural Rivers program.