This site offers more than 4,200 acres ready for you to explore! The mature deciduous woods and coniferous lowlands offer nesting habitat for many birds, including Winter Wrens, Wood and Hermit Thrushes and a variety of warblers. A trek to one of the sinkholes is awesome, but be sure to take a GPS or compass as the trails can be deceiving. Miles of undisturbed Lake Huron shoreline offers many viewing sites for migrating waterbirds. Rockport has a deep-water boat launch into Lake Huron for visiting anglers, an abandoned stone quarry that boasts of world-class fossil hunting, a ghost town, sinkholes and shipwrecks! The Besser Natural Area, accessed off Grand Lake Road, is located at the very north end of the Rockport State Recreation Area. The virgin pines offer nesting habitat to Pine Warblers, American Redstarts and a variety of other birds. There is a one-mile hiking loop here that will take the walker to several different woodland habitats here, as well as passing through the ghost town of Bell. Besser Natural Area is not accessible during the winter.

Things To Do

Animal Viewing, Biking, Birding, Boating, Canoeing, Fishing, Fossil Collecting, Freighter Watching, Geocaching, Geology, Hiking, Horseback Riding, Insect Viewing, Kayaking, Kite Boarding, Parking, Plant Community Viewing, Plant Viewing, Scenic Viewing, Scuba Diving or Snorkeling, Snowshoeing, Swimming, Water Feature Viewing, Wildlife Watching

Available in Spring Available in Summer Available in Fall Available in Winter Public Restrooms Fee Required