Island Lake State Recreation Area is a state-run park in Green Oak Township, Livingston County, in

metro Detroit The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. State of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and its surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the area, including the ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. The park lies on the

Huron River The Huron River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed November 7, 2011 river in southeastern Michigan, rising out of the Huron Swamp in Springfield Township in north ...

and

Kent Lake Kent Lake is a reservoir in western Marin County, California formed by the construction of Peters Dam across Lagunitas Creek. Built in 1954, the lake is the most recent lake of the Marin Municipal Water District, as well as the largest. It lies ...

, an impoundment of the river, just downstream of

Kensington Metropark Kensington Metropark is a unit of the Huron–Clinton Metroparks system located between Milford and South Lyon, Michigan, USA. The park covers 4,543 acres (18.13 km2). It has wooded hilly terrain and surrounds Kent Lake (a dammed section of ...

with which it is also connected by a bike trail. It is the third busiest park operated by the

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

with visitation of 1.09 million in 2008.Crumbling state parks threaten tourism Mich. needs $341M for 200 repair projects
Mark Hornbeck and Charlie Cain, ''Detroit News'', April 23, 2009 The park is easily accessed as it lies near the intersection of

I-96 Interstate 96 (I-96) is an east–west Interstate Highway that runs for approximately entirely within the Lower Peninsula of the US state of Michigan. The western terminus is at an interchange with US Highway 31 (US 31) and Bus ...

and US-23. The park has a group campsite and a canoe-in campsite, several miles of hiking and biking trails, a shooting range, swimming and a couple of small lakes. It is the only Michigan park to have a

hot air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carries p ...

launch area.

References

External links

Island Lake Recreation Area

Island Lake Recreation Area
Protected Planet (World Database on Protected Areas) Protected areas of Livingston County, Michigan Huron River (Michigan) State recreation areas of Michigan {{Michigan-stub