CRAWFORD COUNTY- Recently opened Forest Heritage Trail is a new interpretive project that capitalizes on the area’s forest heritage and stories along segments of the Iron Belle Trail and the Grayling Bicycle Turnpike. The Forest Heritage Trail runs about 19 miles between North Higgins Lake State Park and Hartwick Pines State Park.
Permitted trail usage along these segments of the Iron Belle Trail include nonmotorized bikes and pedestrians.
“Crawford County has one of the richest collections of forest heritage sites in the state,” said Dan Spegel, heritage trail coordinator for the Michigan History Center. “The trail connects two of them: Hartwick Pines State Park, with its visitor center, logging camp and one of Michigan’s last stands of old-growth pine trees, and North Higgins Lake State Park, site of the first state tree nursery and the Civilian Conservation Corps Museum.”
The Michigan History Center began work on heritage trails in 2015, creating interpretive signage along historically significant trails to connect people with both the natural and cultural heritage of a landscape.
