A Bounty of Winter Adventures in Traverse City

Sharp-eyed naturalists know that winter is the best time to look for signs of northern Michigan’s plentiful wildlife, whether it’s the familiar heart-shaped hoofprints of white-tailed deer, the dainty canine tracks of coyote and fox, or the convincing dinosaur imitations made by wild turkeys.

But there are plenty of other tracks left on Traverse City’s winter snow. By people.

This popular Lake Michigan resort area, best known for its miles of pristine beaches, championship golf courses and inland lakes, also boasts a wide range of winter adventure experiences at a comparatively moderate price. In fact, winter is Traverse City’s second busiest season – and once those fat white flakes start floating down from the sky, people start celebrating.

Those long, parallel grooves punctuated with intermittent circles? They’re the unmistakable spoor of Skinny-Skiers, and they’re likely to be found anywhere on the hundreds of miles of marked and groomed cross-country trails that weave their way through the region’s vast acreage of forest and parkland. The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has eight marked trails, some leading up to panoramic overlooks high above the lake. Other marked trail systems include the Lost Lake Pathway near Interlochen, the 3,500-acre Sand Lakes Quiet Area near Williamsburg and – best of all - the Vasa Pathway, one of the finest cross-country ski trails in the nation. (A great way to access the trail is from the nearby Timber Ridge RV & Recreation Resort, which has its own lighted trail system for nocturnal members of the species.)

A related family whose numbers have increased dramatically in recent years is the Bigfooted Snowshoer, whose staggered, toothy tracks come in a bewildering range of oval, teardrop and rectangular shapes. These jovial winter denizens can usually be spotted close to downtown Traverse City at the 500-acre Grand Traverse Commons, whose lovely wooded campus features the castle-like spires and walls of a 19th century mental asylum, or the awe-inspiring Lighthouse Park trails at the tip of the Old Mission Peninsula, or along the Boardman River in the Grand Traverse Natural Education Reserve.

The most impressive winter tracks in the forest, of course, are made by the Northwoods Sledder, a sociable visitor that leaves its characteristic corrugated snowmobile trails in places where speed and thrills can most easily be found. Look (and listen) for them south and east of town, where more than 200 miles of the country’s finest and most diverse snowmobiling wait for them on the Boardman Valley Trail, an 81-mile trail system in the Pere Marquette State Forest, or the Jordan Valley Trail, about a half-hour to the northeast, with over 130 miles of spectacular trails.

Some inhabitants of Traverse City’s winter outdoors are more difficult to follow by tracking. For instance, a steep hillside whose slopes are polished and carved by hundreds of shallow crisscrossed paths is probably a regular habitat for the colorful Downhill Skier – but you might just as easily be looking at the trails of the acrobatic Snowboarder or the Snow Tuber. (And no, a Snow Tuber isn’t some sort of winter vegetable; it’s someone who loves flying downhill on a big soft inflated inner tube.)

Skiers, snowboarders and tubers can all be found at Shanty Creek Resorts, a 4,500-acre recreational complex in the beautiful Chain of Lakes region about 30 miles northeast of Traverse City. Ski Magazine rated Shanty Creek the Midwest’s number-one destination in value, dining, lodging, weather and après ski activities. Its ski areas feature a 450-foot vertical with 49 runs for every ability level, plus four snowboarding terrain parks and a tubing park.

But downhillers, snowboarders and tubers can also be found in a few smaller pockets of habitat closer to town. Mt. Holiday is a community-run ski area just east of town with 16 runs, two chairlifts, a tubing run and terrain park, a pleasant day lodge, and awesome views of East Bay. On the other side of the city is Hickory Hills, a small municipal ski area with eight runs served by old-fashioned rope tows.

One refuge set aside entirely for tubers is Timberlee Hills, a former ski resort in the hills just northwest of town that’s Michigan’s largest snow tubing hill. Timberlee has breathtaking views of Grand Traverse Bay and Lake Leelanau, and even tandem tubes that allow friends and families to hurtle down the hill together.

To learn about other winter adventures, activities and attractions in the Traverse City area, contact the Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau at 1-800-TRAVERSE or on line at www.VisitTraverseCity.com