Outdoors · Roscommon
Share Roscommon, MI parks, trails & bike paths
About 12% of Roscommon is conserved land, roughly 8,541 acres. There are about 246 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Au Sable State Forest - Roscommon Unit (237.7 mi) and Houghton Lake Wildlife Research Area (3 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Roscommon, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Share Roscommon outdoors
Conserved land
12%
8,541 of 68,862 acres
Trails
246 mi
2.3 mi per sq mi · 8 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
4
1,917 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
1.8 mi
0.0 mi lanes · 1.8 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
🏖️ Unnamed beach 🛝 Unnamed playground 🛶 Unnamed boat launch 🏕️ Canoe Camp 🏕️ Houghton Lake Travel Park Campground 1 2 3 4
Show all of Roscommon
Places to walk
Parks & preserves with trails
Ranked by mapped trail miles. Directions go to the nearest marked trailhead or public parking.
1 Au Sable State Forest - Roscommon Unit Managed by Michigan Department of Natural Resources
47,100 acres237.7 mi of trail
Denton Creek ORV Trail East Leota Trail Possum Trail Paddle Trail Lost Twin Lakes Pathway
🐕 Dog rules not recorded
2 Houghton Lake Wildlife Research Area Managed by Michigan Department of Natural Resources
5,211 acres3 mi of trail
Bowman Trail
🐕 Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet Show on map
3 Pere Marquette State Forest - Cadillac Unit Managed by Michigan Department of Natural Resources
7 acres0.2 mi of trail
🐕 Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet Show on map
4 Au Sable State Forest - Gladwin Unit Managed by Michigan Department of Natural Resources
3 acres
🐕 Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet Show on map
Things to do
Beaches, playgrounds, falls & more
Pick a kind of place for the list, directions, or pins on the map above.
Campgrounds in Roscommon Show all on map
🏕️ Canoe Camp In Au Sable State Forest - Roscommon Unit
🏕️ Houghton Lake Travel Park Campground
Trails
Named trails
Unpaved 29.9 mi
Showing 1–10 of 16 trails
Denton Creek ORV Trail East 18.7 mi Leota Trail 15.0 mi Possum Trail 4.3 mi Paddle Trail 3.1 mi Lost Twin Lakes Pathway 2.8 mi Calhoun 1.5 mi Redwood 1.3 mi Panther 1.3 mi Reserve 0.7 mi Murphy 0.7 mi Water
Lakes & rivers
Tap a name for directions.
Who protects the land
8,541 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
State fish & wildlife
6,522 ac State natural resources
1,708 ac Land trusts & nonprofits
123 ac Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 126 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. The places listed above are parks and preserves people visit.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
Painted or protected bike lanes 0.0 mi Off-road bike paths 1.8 mi Shoulders & shared lanes 0.0 mi
Courts & fields Baseball 3 Beach volleyball 2 Tennis 1 Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Public lands
The biggest protected places in Roscommon
From USGS PAD-US: who manages each one and whether visitors are welcome.
State Conservation Area 8,230 ac Private Park 177 ac Conservation Easement 125 ac Local Recreation Area 10 ac Private Recreation or Education 5 ac
Place Managed by Acres Public access
Houghton Lake State Wildlife Research Area State Conservation Area State fish & wildlife 5,231 Open MNRTF Parcel State Conservation Area State natural resources 1,631 Restricted Bear Creek Flooding State Wildlife Management Area State Conservation Area State fish & wildlife 929 Open Townline Creek Flooding State Wildlife Management Area State Conservation Area State fish & wildlife 361 Open Quest Golf Club Private Park Private owners 153 Restricted Pere Marquette State Forest, State Wildlife Area State Conservation Area State natural resources 74 Restricted Houghton Lake Sport Club Private Park Private owners 25 Open Ball Park Local Recreation Area Not recorded 10 Open Mid-Forest Lodge Private Recreation or Education Private owners 5 Open Cadillac State Forest Area State Conservation Area State natural resources 3 Open
History
Historic places to visit
🪦 Roscommon Township Cemetery Cemetery
Nearby
Share Roscommon and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Roscommon'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 38.9-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.
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