Wilderness State Park

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Wilderness State Park
IUCN Category V (Protected Landscape/Seascape)
Location:	Michigan, USA
Nearest city:	Mackinaw City, Michigan
Coordinates:	45°44′18″N, 84°55′36″W
Area:	8,286 acres (33 km²)
Governing body:	Michigan Department of Natural Resources

Wilderness State Park is an 8,286-acre (33 km²) state park in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Emmet County in Northern Michigan. The nearest towns are Carp Lake, Michigan and Mackinaw City, Michigan. The state park is operated by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR). DNR has, as of 2006, approved a proposal that 4,492 acres (18 km²), more than 50% of the state park, be officially dedicated as a wilderness area.

One of the most prominent physical features of the park is Waugoshance Point, which juts westward into northern Lake Michigan. Beyond the tip of the point, Temperance Island and Waugoshance Island are also parts of the state park. Waugoshance Point and the adjacent islands were described, as of 2006, as containing approximately one-third of the remaining Great Lakes habitat suitable for nesting by the endangered piping plover.

Most of the state park is inaccessible by road. The state park contains 22.75 miles (36 km) of mapped trails, including a 5.5-mile-long (9 km) section of the North Country Trail. The beach is mainly rocky with a low slope. Camping in the park is either in the 250-site campground or in one of nine cabins along the shore.

Wilderness State Park contains populations of many animals that are part of the traditional image of the northern Great Lakes ecosystem, including American black bear, beaver, bobcats, mink, muskrats, and otter.

Four separate Lake Michigan lighthouses, Gray's Reef Lighthouse, Skillagalee Island Lighthouse, Waugoshance Lighthouse, and White Shoal Lighthouse, warn shipping from the dangerous rocks and sandbars of Waugoshance Point.