State park
Petoskey State Park
A mile of Lake Michigan beach on Little Traverse Bay between Petoskey and Harbor Springs, with wooded dunes and the climb up Old Baldy.
About 6 miles away (straight line)
Lake · Charlevoix & Petoskey
Pickerel Lake
Crooked Lake's deeper all-sports neighbor east of Petoskey, with a free county park beach and a short channel onto the Inland Waterway.
Pickerel Lake is an all-sports lake and a boater’s starting point. Ski or tube on the open water, swim at the county park beach, then idle through the short channel into Crooked Lake and you are on the Inland Waterway, with Burt Lake and Lake Huron ahead.
It sits just east of Crooked Lake in Emmet County, at about 1,055 acres, roughly half the size of its neighbor. It runs about two and a half miles long and a mile wide. The only local speed rule is the slow no-wake channel to Crooked Lake.
For a beach day, Camp Pet-O-Se-Ga, an Emmet County park on the shore, has a sandy beach that is free for day use, plus a campground and cabins if you want to stay.
Like Crooked Lake it has wide shallow areas with weed beds, but its northwest basin, near the channel to Crooked Lake, reaches about 70 feet. That makes it the deeper of the two.
The Pickerel-Crooked Channel ties the two lakes together, and along with Round Lake they are among the headwater lakes of the Inland Waterway.
On the water
Motorboats and rules
No special limits apply on the open lake, but the channel that joins it to Crooked Lake is slow no-wake.
Swimming
Camp Pet-O-Se-Ga, a 300-acre Emmet County park on the shore, has a sandy beach and is free for day use. It also has a campground and rental cabins.
Connected waters
A slow no-wake channel links Pickerel Lake to Crooked Lake, the start of the Inland Waterway to Lake Huron.
Good to know
Known invasive species in Pickerel and Crooked lakes include curly-leaf pondweed and zebra and quagga mussels.
Fishing, launching at a state site or parking at a state park? See licenses and passes for what you need before you go.
Anything not listed here is unverified. Do not assume public access across private shoreline. Check the Michigan DNR boating access listings and the current fishing regulations.
Location
Map of Pickerel Lake
1 place on an OpenStreetMap map
Places to stay near Pickerel Lake
Lakefront cottages and homes are listed by the local rental managers and booking sites below.
Hotels and inns
Mid-range
Bay View InnFeatured by the Petoskey Area Visitors Bureau among historic hotels and inns
Search all hotels in Bay View: Booking.com · Expedia · Hotels.com · Google Hotels
We don’t take bookings or earn anything from these links. Rates, availability and any booking problems are handled by the booking site.
More places to stay in Bay View
- Terrace Inn · A historic hotel in the Bay View Association that opened on June 1, 1911, and still houses the 1911 Restaurant.
Nearby attractions
Straight-line distances from the map point.
Historic site
Bay View Association
A Victorian summer community above Little Traverse Bay and a National Historic Landmark, with summer concerts and lectures open to the public.
About 8 miles away (straight line)
Ski area
Nub's Nob
A family-owned ski hill near Harbor Springs with 53 runs on 248 acres, 427 feet of vertical, terrain parks and night skiing.
About 8 miles away (straight line)
More lakes and rivers nearby
Lake · Charlevoix & Petoskey
Crooked Lake
A broad, shallow all-sports lake east of Petoskey that starts the Inland Waterway, with marinas and rentals in Oden and Alanson and slow channels at each end.
- All-sports
- Public launch
- Rentals
Lake · Charlevoix & Petoskey
Round Lake (Emmet County)
A small, shallow all-sports lake behind the Petoskey State Park dunes, with a small DNR launch and a nature preserve with easy trails and a boardwalk.
- All-sports
- Public launch
River · Charlevoix & Petoskey
Bear River
A short, fast river through Petoskey, with a quarter-mile whitewater course, a canoe livery for easy family floats and brook trout above the dam.
- Rentals