Rifle River State Recreation Area is a

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "Federated state, state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on accou ...

located on the upper reaches of the Rifle River within the Au Sable State Forest in Ogemaw County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. Covering , the area provides a variety of recreational opportunities, including boating, canoeing, hiking, hunting, fishing, cross-country skiing, biking, and swimming. This area was formerly a private hunting and fishing retreat owned by Harry Mulford Jewett, president of the Paige-Detroit Motor Car Company, for whom the Jewett automobile was named. In 1945 the tract, then called Grousehaven, was purchased by the Michigan Department of Conservation from Mrs. Jewett after her husband's death. The Department of Conservation renamed it the Rifle River Area and used it as a field laboratory for fish and game research. In 1963, the Parks Division acquired the area and it is now known as the Rifle River State Recreation Area.

Camping

Rifle River State Recreation Area offers 75 modern sites at Grousehaven Modern Campground with electricity, an accessible toilet and shower building, and a designated swim beach. Rifle River State Recreation Area also has three rustic campgrounds with a total of 99 rustic campsites with vault toilets, as well as five rustic cabins and a group use campground that accommodates groups up to 100. The camping area includes a public beach, a playground, and a boat launch.

Fishing

All lakes and waterways within Rifle River State Recreation Area are closed to boats with motors. Devoe Lake, Grousehaven Lake, Grebe Lake, and Lodge Lake are open to fishing. Jewett Lake is restricted to

catch and release Catch and release is a practice within recreational fishing where after capture the fish is Fish hook, unhooked and returned live to the water. Originally adopted in the United Kingdom by Coarse fishing, coarse fishermen to Overfishing, preser ...

fishing with no live bait. Ice fishing is possible in the multiple lakes and streams. Fisheries research has been conducted on thirteen-acre Jewett Lake, starting in 1945, and continuing to the present day.

Bluegill The bluegill (''Lepomis macrochirus''), sometimes referred to as "bream", "brim", "sunny", or, in Texas, "copper nose", is a species of North American freshwater fish, native to and commonly found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and wetlands ea ...

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (pikes). They are commonly found in brackish water, moderately salty and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). T ...

yellow perch The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samuel Latham Mitchill fr ...

and

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

can be found in Devoe, Grousehaven, Lodge, and Grebe lakes. Brook,

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the ...

and

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...

are present throughout the many miles of streams in the recreation area.

Trails

The area's 14 miles of trails allow for hiking, snowshoeing, and cross country skiing.

References

External links

Rifle River Recreation Area

Michigan Department of Natural Resources The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the agency of the state of Michigan founded in 1921, charged with maintaining natural resources such as state parks, state forests, and recreation areas. It is governed by a director appoint ...

Rifle River Natural River Plan
May 1980, revised March 12, 2002, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Fisheries Division
Rifle River Recreation Area
Protected Planet (World Database on Protected Areas)
Rifle River Recreation Area

Rifle River Recreation Area Facebook account
{{authority control Protected areas of Ogemaw County, Michigan State recreation areas of Michigan