Hartwick Pines State Park
A surviving old-growth stand, logging museum, visitor center, lakes, trails, and reconstructed logging camp compare immense pre-settlement pines with the industry that transformed northern Michigan.
Artwork inspired by Mathias Alten
The old-growth grove is small relative to the forests that once covered the region, which makes its scale evidence rather than nostalgia. Fire, wind, insects, soil, Indigenous use, logging, replanting, and modern management all shape what visitors call “natural.”
Walk the paved Old Growth Forest Trail before entering the logging museum so stump size, canopy, and machinery remain connected. Extend onto longer trails only with mosquito, weather, and seasonal hunting awareness.
- Old-growth tract
- About 49 acres
- Dominant giant
- Eastern white pine
- History
- Logging camp and museum
Quick guide
- Begin with
- Old Growth Forest Trail
- Look closely at
- Look for logging museum
Let surviving old growth reset your sense of scale
- Enter the Old Growth Trail
- Large white and red pines preserve a rare forest structure
- Visit the logging museum
- Industry history explains why so little old growth remains
- Look below the canopy
- Dead wood, shade, fungi, and regeneration complete the forest
- Check winter access
- Snow changes trails and the operating schedule of staffed buildings
Good to know
The famous grove is a remnant within a much larger managed park; not every tall pine is old growth, and falling limbs can close routes.
Notice these
- Old Growth Forest Trail
- logging museum
- Chapel in the Pines