Ask someone from Michigan where they spend the summer and you rarely get the name of a town. You get a lake. The state has about 11,000 inland lakes, four of the five Great Lakes along its shores, and a family attached to nearly every one of them.
This is a tour of some of the best-loved waters in the state: what makes each one different, and what each looks like as a depth map in layered birch.
The big inland lakes
Houghton Lake: the biggest, and one of the shallowest
Houghton Lake is the largest inland lake in Michigan, at about 20,044 acres. It is also remarkably shallow, with an average depth of around 9 feet. The Muskegon River begins here, flowing out of the lake's North Bay on its way to Lake Michigan.
On a depth map, a lake this shallow reads as one broad sheet of water with only a few steps between the shore and its deepest point.
Houghton Lake 3D wood map $298
Torch Lake: the longest and the deepest
Torch Lake is the opposite. It is the longest inland lake in Michigan, covers about 18,473 acres, and runs roughly 300 feet deep at its deepest point. According to the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, it holds by far the greatest depth and volume of water of any inland lake in the state.
It started out as a deep bay of ancient Lake Michigan, until a sand bar closed off its mouth. All that water stores a lot of heat, and the lake often does not freeze over in winter.
Lake Charlevoix: two arms and a channel to the big lake
Lake Charlevoix is the third largest inland lake in Michigan, about 17,200 acres, and 122 feet deep in its main basin. Boyne City sits at the far end of the main basin, the South Arm reaches down to East Jordan, and the water leaves through Round Lake and the Pine River channel into Lake Michigan at Charlevoix.
Lake Charlevoix 3D wood map $149
Higgins Lake: deep, clear and spring-fed
Higgins Lake drops to about 135 feet, and its water is famously deep and clear. Natural springs supply about half of it. There is a state park at each end of the lake, South Higgins Lake and North Higgins Lake, so plenty of families know it from a campsite before they ever know it from a cottage.
Houghton averages 9 feet. Torch drops to about 300. On the wall, that difference is the whole story: a few broad steps on one map, a deep stack of layers on the other.
Leelanau and Benzie
Glen Lake: two lakes under one name
Glen Lake is really two lakes. Big Glen is nearly round and about 130 feet deep. Little Glen, to the west, reaches only about 13 feet. M-22 crosses the narrow channel between them on a causeway, and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore sits right next to the water.
That contrast is exactly what a depth map is good at. One basin is a tight bowl of layers, and the other barely gets started.
Lake Leelanau: down the middle of the peninsula
Lake Leelanau runs 16.3 miles down the middle of the Leelanau Peninsula in two basins. The north lake reaches 121 feet and the south lake 62. They meet at a narrows near the community of Lake Leelanau, where M-204 crosses on a bridge, and the Leland River carries the water out to Lake Michigan at Leland.
Lake Leelanau 3D wood map $194
Crystal Lake: the lake that was accidentally lowered
Crystal Lake in Benzie County covers about 9,854 acres and reaches 165 feet deep, and it has the best story of the bunch. In 1873, the Benzie County River Improvement Company, led by its president Archibald Jones, set out to connect the lake to Platte Lake and Betsie Lake with navigable canals. Waves washed out a temporary dam, the canals were never built, and the lake dropped about 20 feet.
Grand Traverse Bay: two arms around Old Mission
Grand Traverse Bay is some 32 miles long, split down the middle by the 18-mile Old Mission Peninsula into the East Arm and the West Arm. Traverse City sits at its southern end. In spots the bay is up to 620 feet deep.
Grand Traverse Bay 3D wood map from $169
The Inland Waterway
Burt and Mullett Lakes
Burt Lake and Mullett Lake are two links in the Inland Waterway, a 38-mile chain of lakes and rivers that runs from Crooked Lake, east of Petoskey, across the tip of the mitt to Cheboygan on Lake Huron. Long before outboard motors, travelers used the route to avoid the strong waves around Waugoshance Point on Lake Michigan. Two locks, at Alanson and Cheboygan, still lift boats along the way.
Burt Lake alone covers about 17,120 acres and reaches 73 feet deep.
Burt and Mullett Lakes 3D wood map $298
Walloon Lake: the Hemingway summers
The Hemingway family built their cottage, Windemere, on Walloon Lake in 1900. Ernest spent every summer there from 1900 to 1920, except 1918, and the cottage has been a National Historic Landmark since 1968. A lot of Michigan families have a Walloon story. His is the best known.
The islands
Mackinac Island: no cars allowed
Motor vehicles have been banned in the city of Mackinac Island since 1898 and on the whole island since 1901. People get around on foot, by bicycle and by horse. M-185, the road that loops about 8 miles around the shore, is the only state highway in the country without cars.
Mackinac Island 3D wood map $169
Beaver Island: the island that had a king
Beaver Island is the largest island in Lake Michigan, about 32 miles out from Charlevoix by ferry or a short flight. From 1848 to 1856 it was a Mormon kingdom under James Strang, who was crowned king there in 1850.
Beaver Island 3D wood map $169
The big water
For families who measure summer in freighters and sunsets, the Great Lakes come in birch too.
- Lake Michigan 3D wood map: from $188. The only Great Lake entirely inside the United States, 925 feet deep at its deepest point.
- Lake Superior 3D wood map: $375. The deepest of the five, at 1,332 feet.
- Lake Huron 3D wood map: $188
- Lake St. Clair 3D wood map: $332. Sometimes called the sixth Great Lake, with an average depth of just 11 feet.
- Great Lakes 3D wood map: 16 × 20 for $188, 24.5 × 31 for $332, or the UV-printed version for $188
For the cabin table
- Lake Michigan cribbage board: $74
- Lake Michigan wood ring clock: $84
- Lake Charlevoix serving tray: $149
- Walloon Lake wood wall clock: $74
Your lake not on this list? There are many more Michigan waters in the shop, from Arbutus Lake to the shoreline between Muskegon and South Haven. Search for yours on the map.
Keep reading: The Great Lakes by the Numbers · What Is a Bathymetric Map? · The Lake Lover's Gift Guide: 2026 Edition
Sources: Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council (Torch Lake); Crystal Lake & Watershed Association (Crystal Lake); NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (Great Lakes depths); Wikipedia entries for the other lakes, Grand Traverse Bay, the Inland Waterway and the islands.