South Long Lake Trail is a 1.7 mile moderately trafficked loop trail located near Traverse City, Michigan that features beautiful wild flowers and is good for all skill levels. The trail offers a number of activity options and is accessible year-round. Dogs are also able to use this trail.
A short escape from the kids. Perfect for a late night snowshoe trip. Right down the road from our house.
Nice quiet trail through woods. Trail is well marked, maintained and wide. Need to watch out for tree roots which can be a tripping hazard. Saw no one on this trip except one gray squirrel.
I live across the street from South Long Lake Forest Area and I NEVER tire of this trail. The scenery is diverse and there is lots of wildlife, in and around the swamp areas. My 2 ½ year old has hiked the entire loop without being carried or put in the stroller. I love going later in the evening when the trail is desolate and letting my chihuahua off her leash. During peak summer months I recommend lots of bug spray and walking the trail at a brisk pace.
Nice short trail. Very pretty. Was a still day and lots of standing water so it was buggy. The trail is well marked but there are additional paths not on AllTrails. Trails are wide and well maintained.
Trail itself was ok. Nothing breath taking. However I was also distracted because the bugs were so bad. First time on trail but I would guess it is prone to flooding. So if it has rained in the last week I wouldn’t recommend this trial (Trail?*)
Nice trail through the woods. All Trails has not mapped it out very well though, follow the signs posted, not the app.
Nice trail in the woods! However, not much variation in scenery and the AllTrails map doesn’t totally match the actual trail so we missed our turn and connected to the wrong trail. The trail is well marked though so if you pay careful attention to the actual trail map instead of AllTrails you should be fine. Overall, a nice trail for a quick hike.
This was a decent trail, it has a few hills and some curves which is nice. It isn’t a super long long loop and was definitely doable for my 3 year old. The only hard part was the leaves covering the trail making it sort of slippery and covering the many roots. I think it mighty be prettier once the leaves are on all the trees.
Pretty, love the water and wildlife sounds, but trail is not maintained. You can’t take 3 steps without stepping on a root. I would not rate this as “easy.” With the roots, overgrown trail, and hills, I think this is for more experienced hikers. We did go in the beginning of April, so maybe it’s better in later spring/summer when there aren’t as many leaves down (although the leaf colors were very pretty). Not kid-friendly.
With the warm weather there’s ice then spots of hard pack snow with soft mixed in, so in certain segments you’re slipping than sinking 5” into melt, makes walking difficult, best to wait for more cold or more warm to make it better