BirdTrout
Crystal Falls State Forest Area, Michigan
315,554 acres of public ground in Dickinson, Iron counties, managed by Michigan DNR. 124 named streams run through it, of which 99 are designated trout water — 1008.1 miles of it. It is in the state's huntable-land layer.
Open in BirdTrout50°F and colder is cold, through cold-transitional and cool, to warm above 70°F — the same four bands the app paints. The colour is MDNR's classification of the valley segment, not a measurement, except at the gauge dots, which read live. Grey is water MDNR has not typed.
The unit in numbers
Assembled from MDNR and OSM and PADUS ownership records, dissolved into one block: the section lines a state forest is surveyed in are not a fact about access, so they are not drawn and not counted twice.
Getting on it
Open to the public on foot without a permit, as the ownership file records it.
This unit is 392 separate blocks of ground rather than one, which is normal for public land held in surveyed sections: the blocks are not contiguous. The map above draws every one of them, and the ground between two of them belongs to somebody else. Boundaries, closures and anything posted on the ground are Michigan Department of Natural Resources's to say, and 517-284-6057 is where to ask.
Trout streams on this ground
Every named stream whose reaches touch this unit, longest first. 33 of them have a page of their own and are linked; the rest are in the app. Thermal class is MDNR's classification of the valley segment, over the reaches it has typed. "Now" is the live USGS reading where a gauge stands in that stream.
| Stream | Miles | Class | Now | Designation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ford River Blue Ribbon | 107.8 | Cool | — | Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Type 4 |
| Michigamme River | 66.9 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| Paint River Blue Ribbon | 44.5 | Cool | — | Type 2, Type 3 |
| East Branch Sturgeon River | 41.0 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| West Branch Sturgeon River Blue Ribbon | 40.5 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| North Branch Ford River | 35.1 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| South Branch Paint River | 29.4 | Cold | — | Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Type 4 |
| West Branch Escanaba River | 29.3 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| Sturgeon River Blue Ribbon | 28.5 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| Pine Creek | 27.4 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| East Branch Net River | 20.1 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| East Branch Fence River | 18.9 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2, Type 3 |
| Fence River Blue Ribbon | 17.4 | untyped | — | Type 2, Type 3 |
| West Branch Net River | 17.1 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| Bryan Creek | 16.0 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Net River | 14.9 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| Deer River | 14.0 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| North Branch Sturgeon River | 13.5 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| Hemlock River | 12.9 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| Mitchigan River | 12.8 | Cold | — | Type 2, Type 3 |
| Twomile Creek | 12.8 | untyped | — | Type 2, Type 3 |
| Flat Rock Creek | 12.6 | Cold | — | Type 2 |
| Cassidy Creek | 12.4 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| West Branch Fence River | 12.3 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2, Type 3 |
| McCutcheon Creek | 11.7 | Cold | — | Type 2 |
| Big Brook | 10.8 | Cold | — | Type 2 |
| Schwartz Creek | 10.5 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Mitchell Creek | 10.1 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| McGregor Creek | 9.6 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Chicagon Slough | 9.4 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| Breen Creek | 9.1 | Cool | — | — |
| Nookomis nbi | 9.0 | Cold-transitional | — | — |
| Poplar Creek | 8.3 | Cold | — | Type 2 |
| Stager Creek | 8.2 | Cold | — | Type 2 |
| Little Hemlock River | 7.8 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| Fern Creek | 7.6 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| Smith Creek | 7.6 | Cold | — | Type 2, Type 3 |
| Black Creek | 7.1 | Cool | — | — |
| Briar Hill Creek | 6.8 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| Margeson Creek | 6.5 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| Wild West Creek | 6.4 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Clarks Creek | 6.3 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| Sunset Creek | 6.3 | Cold | — | Type 2, Type 3 |
| Stafford Creek | 6.2 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Dunn Creek | 6.1 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| Saint Paul Creek | 6.1 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| Tom Kings Creek | 6.1 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| East Branch Skunk Creek | 6.0 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| Skunk Creek | 5.9 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| Peterson Creek | 5.8 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| Hayes Creek | 5.6 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Little Brook | 5.5 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Morrison Creek | 5.3 | Cold | — | Type 2 |
| Seiberts Creek | 5.3 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| Gages Creek | 4.9 | Cold | — | Type 2 |
| Parks Creek | 4.8 | Cold-transitional | — | — |
| Quarry Creek | 4.8 | Cool | — | — |
| Sixmile Creek | 4.8 | untyped | — | — |
| Beaver Creek | 4.7 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| Kukura Creek | 4.7 | Cold-transitional | — | — |
| Parks Creek | 4.7 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| Premo Creek | 4.7 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Twenty Six Creek | 4.7 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Jansen Creek | 4.6 | Cool | — | — |
| Weber Creek | 4.5 | Cold | — | Type 2 |
| Fribley Creek | 4.4 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| Johnson Creek | 4.4 | Cold | — | Type 2 |
| North Branch Iron River | 4.3 | Cold | — | Type 2, Type 3 |
| Olson Creek | 4.3 | Cold | — | Type 2 |
| Reservoir Creek | 4.3 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| West Branch Armstrong Creek | 4.1 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| New York Creek | 4.0 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Porter Creek | 4.0 | untyped | — | — |
| Cady Creek | 3.8 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Camp Creek | 3.8 | untyped | — | Type 2, Type 3 |
| Manila Creek | 3.8 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| Turner Creek | 3.8 | untyped | — | Type 2, Type 3 |
| Camp Six Creek | 3.7 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| East Branch Armstrong Creek | 3.7 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| Gilbert Creek | 3.6 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Carney Lake Outlet | 3.5 | Cool | — | — |
| Harding Creek | 3.5 | Cold | — | Type 2 |
| Brown Creek | 3.4 | untyped | — | — |
| South Branch Iron River | 3.4 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2, Type 3 |
| Bear Creek Blue Ribbon | 3.3 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Camp Five Creek | 3.3 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| Tim Bowers Creek | 3.3 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| Camp Eight Creek | 3.2 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| Crescent Pond Outlet | 3.1 | untyped | — | — |
| Hancock Creek | 3.1 | Cool | — | — |
| Kelso River | 3.0 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| Solberg Lake Creek | 3.0 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Barnetts Creek | 2.9 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Noyes Creek | 2.9 | untyped | — | — |
| Shenky Creek | 2.9 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Hosking Creek | 2.8 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Defiance Creek | 2.7 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Nolenchec Creek | 2.7 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2, Type 3 |
| Seven Springs Creek | 2.7 | Cold | — | Type 2 |
| Crystal Spring Creek | 2.6 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Finn Town Creek | 2.5 | untyped | — | — |
| Farley Creek | 2.4 | untyped | — | — |
| Gravel Pit Creek | 2.4 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| Lost Lake Creek | 2.4 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| Steel Creek | 2.4 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Threemile Creek | 2.3 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Hickman Creek | 2.1 | Cool | — | Type 2, Type 3 |
| Waterworks Creek | 2.1 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Fire Lake Creek | 2.0 | Cool | — | Type 2 |
| Larson Creek | 1.6 | Cold-transitional | — | Type 2 |
| Lost Creek | 1.6 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Jones Camp Creek | 1.5 | untyped | — | Type 2, Type 3 |
| Cedar Creek | 1.4 | untyped | — | — |
| Cable Lake Creek | 1.3 | Cold | — | — |
| Davison Creek | 1.2 | Cool | — | — |
| Kelso Creek | 1.2 | Cold-transitional | — | — |
| Spring Lake Creek | 1.1 | untyped | — | — |
| South Branch Breen Creek | 1.0 | untyped | — | — |
| Mikes Creek | 0.9 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Start Creek | 0.9 | untyped | — | — |
| Nelson Creek | 0.8 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| South Slough | 0.7 | Cold | — | — |
| Longs Creek | 0.6 | untyped | — | Type 2 |
| Pass Creek | 0.6 | Cool | — | — |
The miles are the whole stream's, not the miles inside this boundary: a river does not stop at a property line and neither does its page.
Hunting
This ground is in Michigan's huntable public-land layer as national forest — 98% of the unit is covered by it. The seasons below are the 2025–2026 small-game seasons as the state's own digest publishes them; they are statewide except where a species is zoned, and the bars run 1 September to 31 August.
Daily bag 3, possession 9. Federally set — woodcock is a migratory bird, so the season is a US Fish and Wildlife framework Michigan selects within, not a state season. The stamp is free but it is not optional, and it registers you with HIP.
Daily bag 5, possession 10. Split season — it closes for the two weeks of firearm deer and opens again December 1.
Daily bag 5, possession 10. The Department of Natural Resources opens quail in 27 counties — Branch, Calhoun, Clinton, Eaton, Genesee, Gratiot, Hillsdale, Huron, Ingham, Ionia, Jackson, Kent, Lapeer, Lenawee, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Montcalm, Oakland, Saginaw, St. Clair, St. Joseph, Sanilac, Shiawassee, Tuscola, Washtenaw and Wayne — and states that quail may be taken in those counties only. Wildlife Conservation Order 3.504(2), read August 2026. Section 3.504(3) lets the Department's director close any or all of those counties by interim order on the June breeding quail survey. An interim order is not carried in this app — check the digest for the county you are hunting. Effectively gone from Michigan outside a few southern counties — 1,769 recorded observations statewide against the grouse's 36,948.
Daily bag 2, possession 4. Zoned — this ground is in Zone 1 unit — partly open. Male (rooster) only.
Daily bag 2, possession 4. The Department of Natural Resources opens sharp-tailed grouse only inside the zone 1 sharp-tailed grouse management unit, in the eastern Upper Peninsula, and states that the remaining portion of the state is closed. Wildlife Conservation Order 3.503(1) with the unit of 12.751, read August 2026. The unit lies within Chippewa and Mackinac counties but is not the whole of either. Its boundary is described as a chain of roads, rivers and section corners and is not drawn in this app — being in one of those two counties is not the same as being in the unit. Read 12.751 or the digest's map before you hunt. Beyond the daily and possession limits there is a season limit of 6 sharp-tailed grouse — Wildlife Conservation Order 3.503(2). It is the only season limit in this app. The free sharp-tailed grouse stamp is issued on request and becomes part of the licence. It is free and it is not optional. Do not confuse it with the spruce grouse, which shares the same Upper Peninsula country, is protected in Michigan and has no season at all.
The Department of Natural Resources opens the fall season in its fall turkey management units, not statewide: unit M is the Upper Peninsula and unit I is the Lower Peninsula except Monroe county. Wildlife Conservation Order 3.303 with 12.654 and 12.675, read August 2026. Fall turkey is also quota-limited and licensed by unit. Being inside a unit is not the same as holding a tag for it — this app draws where the season is, not what you are licensed for. Exempt from the hunter-orange requirement.
Hunter orange: Small game hunters must wear a hunter-orange cap, hat, vest, jacket or rain gear as the outermost garment, visible from all sides. Camouflage counts if it is at least 50% orange. It applies August 15 – April 30, except when hunting waterfowl, crow, wild turkey and falconry.
No statewide Sunday closure for small game. A few counties restrict firearm hunting on private land under PA 319 of 1994 — not mapped here.
Access sites and amenities
No public access site we have on record stands on this unit. We hold no trail or campground data at all, so what is here is what the state publishes as launches and walk-in access, and none of it falls on this ground.
When to come
The hatch calendar for the Upper Peninsula, which is the region this unit's centre falls in — the same regions the app's hatch panel uses. It is a regional record, not a survey of this ground: nobody has counted insects unit by unit. Year-round records (midges, scuds, sculpins) are left out. The seasons above are the other half of this calendar: the water is best before the ground is.
January
April
May
- Blue-Winged Olive
- Blackfly
- Cranefly
- Grannom
- +10 more
June
July
- Caterpillar
- Crayfish
- Green Sedge
- Light Cahill
- +15 more
August
September
October
November
December
What makes this unit distinctive
Three hundred and fifteen thousand acres in Dickinson and Iron counties, in 392 separate blocks — the Crystal Falls State Forest Area is scattered ground, and it carries a great deal of water: 124 named streams, ninety-nine of them designated trout water, 1,008.1 miles in total. Six are Blue Ribbon: Bear Creek, the Fence, the Ford, the Paint, the Sturgeon and the West Branch Sturgeon. The Ford River is the longest at 107.8 miles and MDNR types it cool; the East and West Branches of the Sturgeon it types cold-transitional. The unit reaches five watersheds — Brule, Cedar-Ford, Escanaba, Menominee and Michigamme — which is most of the western interior of the peninsula. Ninety-eight per cent of it is in the state's huntable-land layer. No USGS gauge stands on it, and no access site we have on record does either.
Regulations
Nothing on this page is a regulation. The fishing rules that apply to the water on this ground — the types, the seasons, the size limits and the gear restrictions — are on the Michigan fishing regulations page, built from the agency's own columns. The hunting seasons above come from the state's hunting digest, read against the 2025 licence year.
Watersheds it lies in
The subbasins this ground drains into. Each one has the whole basin's water on it.
Public land nearby
The nearest other blocks of public ground, centre to centre. Public land does not tile a state the way watersheds do, so this is nearness rather than adjacency.
- Genes Pond Flooding State Wildlife Management Area 5.8 mi
- Felch Mountain Flooding State Wildlife Management Area 7.7 mi
- Groveland Mine Flooding State Wildlife Management Area 9.2 mi
- Hardwood Reservoir Flooding State Wildlife Management Area 14.7 mi
- Hancock Creek Flooding State Wildlife Management Area 16.5 mi
Plan a weekend around it
The trip pages whose range reaches this ground — the water in the same drive, what is hatching, and a three-day plan built from it.