1
Bay View Woods Park
Park
170 acres4.2 mi of trail
Algonquin TrailOld Indian TrailGateway TrailDeer TrailPipeline Trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Outdoors · Bear Creek
Bear Creek, MI parks, trails & bike paths
About 2.4% of Bear Creek is conserved land, roughly 702 acres. There are about 39 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Bay View Woods Park (4.2 mi), Petoskey State Park (3.7 mi), and Mackinaw State Forest - Gaylord Unit (2.6 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Bear Creek, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Bear Creek outdoors
Conserved land
2.4%
702 of 29,022 acres
Trails
39 mi
0.9 mi per sq mi · 2 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
15
107 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
7.6 mi
2.0 mi lanes · 5.6 mi off-road paths
Conserved land is a share of the whole town area. Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
Map
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number or a place below to zoom in© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Places to walk
Parks & preserves with trails
Ranked by mapped trail miles. Directions go to the nearest marked trailhead or public parking.
2
Petoskey State Park
Park
319 acres3.7 mi of trail
Portage TrailOld Baldy Trail
Dog rules not recorded
3
Mackinaw State Forest - Gaylord Unit
Managed by Michigan Department of Natural Resources
1,669 acres2.6 mi of trail
North Country Trail
Dog rules not recorded
4
Skyline Trail Nature Preserve
Nature preserve
111 acres1.6 mi of trail
Skyline Trail & North Country Trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo Krause Rd
5
Round Lake Nature Preserve
Nature preserve
57 acres1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Website
6
Fochtman Nature Preserve
Managed by Little Traverse Conservancy
197 acres0.7 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
7
Spring Lake Park
Park
20 acres0.4 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
All 15 parks & preserves
Showing 1–10 of 15 parks & preserves
Bay View Woods Park170 acres · 4.2 mi of trail
Petoskey State Park319 acres · 3.7 mi of trail
Mackinaw State Forest - Gaylord Unit1,669 acres · 2.6 mi of trail · Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Skyline Trail Nature Preserve111 acres · 1.6 mi of trail
Round Lake Nature Preserve57 acres · 1 mi of trail
Fochtman Nature Preserve197 acres · 0.7 mi of trail · Little Traverse Conservancy
Spring Lake Park20 acres · 0.4 mi of trail
Reg and Vivian Sharkey Nature Preserve3 acres · 0.1 mi of trail · Little Traverse Conservancy
Jones Landing1 acres · 0.1 mi of trail
Schoof's Creek Natural Area47 acres
Who protects the land
702 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 219 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 5 of 17 parcels. The places listed above are parks and preserves people visit.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
- Painted or protected bike lanes2.0 mi
- Off-road bike paths5.6 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes0.0 mi
Courts & fields
- Tennis15
- Soccer11
- Pickleball3
- Basketball2
- Baseball2
- Softball1
- Beach volleyball1
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Nearby
Bear Creek and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bear Creek | 2.4% | 38.9 mi | 15 |
| Petoskey | 18% | 29.0 mi | 21 |
| Springvale | 2.1% | 83.8 mi | 10 |
| Melrose | 2.1% | 31.4 mi | 12 |
| Resort | 4.5% | 15.8 mi | 13 |
| Little Traverse | 10.4% | 44.0 mi | 32 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Bear Creek's trails yet. Muddy, icy, a bridge out, where to park: a quick post helps the next person.
Sources: trails, parks, preserves, courts and bike lanes © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), map data as of 2026-09-28. Conserved land: USGS Gap Analysis Project, Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US). Measured against the Census town boundary.
How we measure
"Trails" are OpenStreetMap paths, bridleways, public tracks and unpaved footways, plus footways inside a park or preserve or on a named trail route. Sidewalks are left out. Areas are counted on a 23-meter grid, so overlapping parcels count once. "Conserved" includes conservation easements, which protect land from development but are usually private property. Trailheads are the nearest marked trailhead, public parking lot or information board within about 150 meters of a preserve. Dog rules come from OpenStreetMap when someone has tagged them; otherwise we show what's typical for the land manager, or say the rules aren't recorded.