By state · MI

National Parks in Michigan.

By Nicholas Major · Last updated

Michigan has Isle Royale National Park (in Lake Superior, ferry- or seaplane-only and closed November through mid-April) and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore as its headline NPS units. Other Michigan units include Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on the Upper Peninsula, Keweenaw National Historical Park, Father Marquette, and River Raisin National Battlefield Park. Detroit (DTW), Marquette (MQT), and Traverse City (TVC) anchor different parts of the network. Isle Royale is the most-isolated National Park in the lower 48; reaching it requires a multi-hour ferry from Houghton or Copper Harbor in Michigan or from Grand Portage in Minnesota. The visiting season is mid-April through October; mid-July through August is the practical peak for both Isle Royale backcountry and Sleeping Bear beach access. Fall color along the Lake Superior shoreline peaks mid-October.

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Michigan map with place names

Michigan National Parks map: labeled satellite map, showing 1 locations: Isle Royale
Michigan's 1 designated National Park. Dots mark general locations, not entrances. This map does not show every NPS source record in the directory below. Map: National Sites Guide, CC BY 4.0.

Customize or download the Michigan map. Change the names, pins and background, or download a ready-made PNG or SVG.

NPS source records in Michigan.

Michigan has 6 records in our combined NPS metadata and visitor-statistics registry: 2 National Lakeshores · 1 National Park · 1 National Historical Park · 1 National Scenic Trail · 1 National Battlefield Park. This is a source-record count, not the Park Service's official system-unit census. Combined 5-year-average annual visits: 2,905,030 (multi-state units count their full visits in every state they touch, see methodology). The most-visited record is Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore at about 1.62M annual visits.

Map of the broader NPS source-record directory
Every National Park Service site in Michigan, mapped. Each glowing marker is one site, placed at its real coordinates and colored by type. Select a marker for its yearly visits and a link, or use the filters to show or hide a group.
National Park Service sites in Michigan, mapped Interactive map of Michigan showing the location of 6 National Park Service sites, colored by type: national parks, monuments and memorials, historic sites, recreation areas and seashores, rivers, trails and parkways, and other sites. It includes the National Park Isle Royale National Park. Each site is also listed with its yearly visits in the table below the map.

Marker positions are each unit's official NPS coordinates. State outline: U.S. Census cartographic boundary (public domain). Independent site, not affiliated with the National Park Service.

UnitDesignation5-yr avg visitsBusiest month
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore National LakeshoreSLBE 1,618,818 July
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore National LakeshorePIRO 1,007,364 July
River Raisin National Battlefield Park National Battlefield ParkRIRA 226,493 May
Isle Royale National Park National ParkISRO 27,632 August
Keweenaw National Historical Park National Historical ParkKEWE 24,723 July
North Country National Scenic Trail National Scenic TrailNOCO — —

Methodology

Rows come from our combined NPS metadata and Visitor Use Statistics registry, not the Park Service's official census of 433 managed system units. Per-record visit counts come from the official NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025; the "5-year average visits" column is the mean of 2021-2025 Recreation Visits. Multi-state records are listed under every state they touch, and their full visit total appears in each state. Official National Park counts use the central 63-park classification rather than the source designation label alone. Independent site, not affiliated with the National Park Service.

Adjacent reading

Independence

Independent site. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Park Service. Data comes from the official NPS Visitor Use Statistics Data Package, 2025; editorial analysis is ours. The NPS Arrowhead and other NPS marks are not used.

Last updated · 2026-09-10