Yankee Springs trails and other places to wander in west michigan. (1 Viewer)

[VSPro9]

Figured id just start a thread here, hopefully this will be helpful to some of you in west michigan looking to get mud on your tires.

Route 1: mostly mild forest or seasonal roads with some mudpits. very scenic. some pavement portions.

Start south bound at caledonia sportsmans club on solomon road.
East on Parmalee road
south on woodschool
west on loftus
south on solomon
west on garbow
south on johnson
west on crane (crane had some tricky washouts that lifted front passenger and rear driver at the same time, plus some deeper mudholes. test out your atrac here!

Route 2
starts at the corner of wildwood and s norris road (co hwy 611) i believe the adress is 3998 s yankee springs road, delton michigan.
head east down this path, youll cross dagget lake, which is nice you can launch canoes or even dip your tires in the lake. keep heading east until otis lake road and head north on that.
otis lake will run back into gun lake road, you will go right on that which is kinda north east
youll quickly go left (north) onto S whitmore road and then quickly again west (left) onto hart road. this has a pretty deep water crossing at times, between 1-3 feet depending on rain, but it is a gravel base. follow it through to come out by deep lake, or chase some of the trails leading north off it which i have not explored yet.

there is a lot of trails i havent explored yet in this area, so if you do go down, please let me know what you found and where you went! i believe dispersed camping is allowed in some of these areas and i saw evidence of campfires.

overall very mild and shouldnt have any issues running down it, but it was nice to get out in the woods and wander around.

Edit: river ave is apparently off liMits, see reply below

There is also river road in jenison, off of baldwin next to the jenison wastewater treatment plant. its the street right before you get on the highway so be careful not to accidently get on 196 east.

 

[TWEBB]

Figured id just start a thread here, hopefully this will be helpful to some of you in west michigan looking to get mud on your tires.

Route 1: mostly mild forest or seasonal roads with some mudpits. very scenic. some pavement portions.

Start south bound at caledonia sportsmans club on solomon road.
East on Parmalee road
south on woodschool
west on loftus
south on solomon
west on garbow
south on johnson
west on crane (crane had some tricky washouts that lifted front passenger and rear driver at the same time, plus some deeper mudholes. test out your atrac here!

Route 2
starts at the corner of wildwood and s norris road (co hwy 611) i believe the adress is 3998 s yankee springs road, delton michigan.
head east down this path, youll cross dagget lake, which is nice you can launch canoes or even dip your tires in the lake. keep heading east until otis lake road and head north on that.
otis lake will run back into gun lake road, you will go right on that which is kinda north east
youll quickly go left (north) onto S whitmore road and then quickly again west (left) onto hart road. this has a pretty deep water crossing at times, between 1-3 feet depending on rain, but it is a gravel base. follow it through to come out by deep lake, or chase some of the trails leading north off it which i have not explored yet.

there is a lot of trails i havent explored yet in this area, so if you do go down, please let me know what you found and where you went! i believe dispersed camping is allowed in some of these areas and i saw evidence of campfires.

overall very mild and shouldnt have any issues running down it, but it was nice to get out in the woods and wander around.

There is also river road in jenison, off of baldwin next to the jenison wastewater treatment plant. its the street right before you get on the highway so be careful not to accidently get on 196 east.

This is great! I always head north to do trails. I will definitely be checking these out! Thanks

 

[Jelder]

I'm in Grandville and looking forward to getting over to Holly Oaks or up to Twisted Trails. Might be fun to get a few Cruisers together!

Maybe some Saturday in October?

 

[VSPro9]

Hey I’m also in grandville! GX is going into the shop this week after a hard weekend of wheeling, should be up for trails in a week or so though.

 

[Buttons]

Nice! I love stuff like this local. So hard since so much is private property in southern half of Michigan!

 

[VSPro9]

Coworker told me about tin cup, appears to be about a hour north of GR in baldwin.

found this https://www2.dnr.state.mi.us/public...tin_cup_spring_motorcycle_trail_and_route.pdf

some googling shows lots of pictures of jeeps and full sizes on the trail. one review estimated about 4-5 hours to complete the loop and had it listed as being mild during dry season and moderate when wet. im adding it to my list of places to check out, ill let yall know when i head up if anyone wants to get lost in the woods.

found pretty good video from jeep group

 

[Ocho77]

I live near Baldwin. Let me know when you come up to check it out, if I’m free I’ll go with you. It’s a great area!

 

[VSPro9]

I live near Baldwin. Let me know when you come up to check it out, if I’m free I’ll go with you. It’s a great area!

have you been on tin cup before? curious what its like

 

[Ocho77]

No, I have not. Would love to check it out though.

 

[VSPro9]

gonna have to check the schedule with kids sports, saturdays for me are pretty booked, but maybe a sunday after church?

 

[VSPro9]

 

[VSPro9]

I’ll get some more pics up later, but this was river ave in jenison. Very fun time, shortish trail but challenging and with a properly equipped truck much more would be accessible. Next time i come out I’ll bring a saw, as some downed trees blocked our progress.

 

[TCEd]

Coworker told me about tin cup, appears to be about a hour north of GR in baldwin.

found this https://www2.dnr.state.mi.us/public...tin_cup_spring_motorcycle_trail_and_route.pdf

some googling shows lots of pictures of jeeps and full sizes on the trail. one review estimated about 4-5 hours to complete the loop and had it listed as being mild during dry season and moderate when wet. im adding it to my list of places to check out, ill let yall know when i head up if anyone wants to get lost in the woods.

found pretty good video from jeep group

Do you know that trail is identified as ORV/motorcycle only ? It looks very narrow in many of the photos I've seen.

 

[VSPro9]

Do you know that trail is identified as ORV/motorcycle only ? It looks very narrow in many of the photos I've seen.
There are portions that are marked ORV trail which is 50” and under, but the outlined map was orv route which is 72”. A Jeep friend with a gladiator said he might check it out this weekend and let me know.

 

[VSPro9]

This is still river ave, but gives you a good idea of the entrance. You can see a log down but thankfully when it’s fry you can go around

 

[Jelder]

I just got back from River Ave. I had never driven off road before and it was a riot. I was a little nervous about the track after you get past the tree but the truck did great. I did get stuck in the mud pit by the river for about 10 minutes!

 

[VSPro9]

Awesome! Yea the “dry” stream bed isn’t dry! If you get in a pickle it’s about 5 min from my house i can always give you a pull or lend my traction boards

 

[VSPro9]

Edit: jeepers bailed due to rain, will try to plan something next weekend

 

[69LC]

That’s too bad. They probably didn’t want to void their warranties.

 

[VSPro9]

update: some people have informed me they believe river ave is not supposed to be driven on past the gravel, so i have emailed the sheriff and the township to find out.