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Year round, Grayling offers casual adventures for outdoor enthusiasts with canoeing, kayaking, fishing on the AuSable and Manistee Rivers, biking, hiking, golfing, a fish hatchery, and endangered Kirtland Warbler viewing opportunities. There are numerous historical sites located within the county. Several festivals and events are scheduled throughout the year. During winter months, snowboarding, sledding, ice-skating, ice fishing and downhill skiing are available along with numerous groomed or ungroomed trails for cross country skiing and snowmobiling. In the fall, color tours and several hunting seasons draw visitors to the area. Unique shops and restaurants are open year round for the visitors enjoyment. Reasonably priced motels, bed and breakfasts, and cabins offer various amenities including canoe, golf and fishing packages.
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PRINCIPLE ATTRACTIONS AND EVENTS
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- Grayling is noted as the "Canoe Capital of the World". There are a number of canoe liveries that operate on the Au Sable River, with Penrod's Canoe Livery receiving the People's Choice Award for five out of the last six years, and Manistee River nearby.
- Cross country skiing is an important opportunity in Grayling. It is blessed with two of the top-rated cross country venues in Michigan, namely Hartwick Pines State Park Trails and Mason Tract Pathway.[12] Forbush corners in nearby Frederic, Michigan is a world-recognized center for education and training in cross country skiing, and benefits from early and late snow due to a 'snow belt micro climate.' Accomplished amateur ski racer David Forbush designed, maintains, and grooms "one of the finest privately owned systems in the Midwest."
- The Grayling are gone, but the rainbow trout, brook trout and steelhead remain. Grayling is a hotbed of fly fishing and angling on the edge of some world class streams, rivers and lakes. Particularly notable are two nearby rivers which parallel each other: the Au Sable River which runs East to Lake Huron and the Manistee River which runs West to Lake Michigan. Trout and steelhead abound, driven to a feeding frenzy by prolific and multiple insect hatches.
- As is true in the rest of Michigan, White-tailed deer hunting is locally considered to be a 'sacrament' and the firearms deer opener (November 15) its 'holy day of obligation.' With 70% of Crawford County owned by federal and state government, and open to the public, it is a hunter's dream. Various terrain types yield trophy bucks, and other fauna, from squirrels to waterfowl. Grayling is a sportmen's paradise.
- Snow shoeing and snow mobile riding are activities that fit right in to the local weather and topography.
- Hanson Hills was the first down hill ski area in Michigan. It opened in 1929.
- Michigan Shore to Shore Riding & Hiking Trail passes through Grayling. It runs from Empire to Oscoda, and points north and south. It is a 500 mile interconnected system of trails.
- The Kirtland's Warbler has its habitat in the area. There is a Kirtland's Warbler Festival, which is sponsored in part by Kirtland Community College.
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