Share your sightings!
North Huron Birding Trail
  • Home
  • Locations
    • Interactive Map
    • Eastern UP - Winter Birding Locations
    • St. Ignace Locations >
      • Bridge View Park and Pte. La Barbe
      • Straits State Park
      • Dock #3
      • Huron Boardwalk
      • Carp River Mouth
    • Les Cheneaux Area Locations >
      • Search Bay National Forest Campground
      • Birge Preserve Complex
      • Derby Nature Preserve
      • Cedarville Wastewater
      • Cedarville Bay
      • Woollam Nature Preserve
      • Prentiss Bay
    • DeTour Area Locations >
      • Gerstacker Preserve
      • DeTour Roadside Park
      • DeTour State Forest Campground
      • DeTour Harbor and Drummond Island Ferry
      • Detour Peninsula Nature Preserve
    • Drummond Island >
      • Pigeon Cove Flooding
      • Drummond Island Township Park and Heritage Trail
      • Williams Preserve
      • Drummond GEMS area
      • Maxton Plains Alvar
      • Glen Cove Road - Adventure Birding
      • Potagannissing Wildlife Flooding
    • Pickford Grassland Area >
      • Goetzville Fields
      • M-48 Habitat
      • Pickford Grassland Loop
      • Prater Acquisition
      • Munuscong Potholes
      • Munuscong State Forest Campground
  • Birding Resources
    • Birding Resources
    • Recent Sightings
    • Birding Basics
  • Plan Your Trip
    • Plan Your Trip
    • Lodging
    • Birding and the Economy
  • Events
  • Contact

DeTour Area: DeTour State Forest Campground

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Directions
From the DeTour Roadside Park, the Campground is found only 1 mile further east on M-134. The entrance to the park is on the right (south) and is marked only by a small brown camping sign before it. The entrance drive is 0.8 miles long. There is a parking area once you reach the campground near the dumpsters. A 1.5 mile trail, which ends at the park entrance, can be found between campsites 12 and 13 and is marked by a blue flag.  When hiking along the shoreline please stay on the trail and be careful to not step on the local endangered plants.


Birding Opportunities
​
This park boasts a 2.2 mile trail loop (hiking trail + campground road) that winds through sandy dune like habitat, thick spruce/cedar forest and a small patch of oak/beach forest. It also provides opportunities for birders to walk to the end of Point Vitals, one of the furthest south reaching points in the area. This point is another excellent place to catch large roving flocks of migrant warblers, vireos, flycatchers, tangers and orioles. Highlights of some migrant species include Orange-Crowned Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, Canada Warbler, Blue-Headed Vireo and Philadelphia Vireo. In addition if one travels out to the end of the point there is a chance to see a number of rare shorebird and raptor species that land here. In one year a large flock of over 20 Whimbrel was seen at the tip of the point. Summer species seen here include numerous Blue-Throated Warbler, Golden-Crowned Kinglet and a pair of nesting Merlin. Long-Tailed Ducks, Bufflehead and Common Goldeneye can also be seen out over the open water, sometimes at a great distance and occasionally Common Loon can be heard calling here. 
Picture
Wilson's Warbler
Picture
Whimbrel
Picture
Death Camas
​Photo by K.Beyer
​Other Exciting Features
There is a small dune complex that exists along the sandy shorelines here and is home to one of the rarest coastal plants of the Great Lakes, the Pitcher’s Thistle. This plant can only be found in the sandy shores of the Great Lakes and numerous individual plants are found here. In addition there are other interesting shoreline plants such as Lake Huron Tansy, Wormwood, Death Camas and a number of orchid species such as pink and yellow lady slippers.  


Link to Site Map and Additional Info: 
http://www.michigandnr.com/parksandtrails/details.aspx?id=694&type=SFCG#overview

Picture

Location

Quote of the day

“Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher 'standard of living' is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television.” 
― Aldo Leopold

Contact Us