The longest scenic trail in the nation is officially a unit of the National Park Service. The North Country National Scenic Trail recently received the designation, opening it up to funding and promotional opportunities that other trails — like the Appalachian and Pacific Crest — already receive.
The trail spans eight states — North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Vermont — and is nearly 5,000 miles long, according to the North Country Trail Association. Michigan has the most trail miles of any of those states; over 1,000 miles of trail wind through the Upper and Lower Peninsulas, showcasing diverse habitats from lakeshores to hardwood forests.
Andrea Ketchmark is the director of the association, which is headquartered in Lowell, Michigan. She said they have been advocating for national park status for over thirty years.
“Over the years we realized that we’ve been held back from certain promotional opportunities, and some pretty big funding opportunities that kept us literally off the map. We will be on the map of national parks, which is, you know, incredible. But also, we'll be included in additional funding opportunities,” Ketchmark said.
She added that one of the things that makes the NCT stand out from other long, north to south trails is that it does not follow the spine of a mountain range, but crosses through a huge variety of habitats.
“We go through so much diverse country. We are in the north woods of the U.P. and northern New York, we go through the Adirondacks … but we also go through the farmlands of Ohio, through mining country, through working forest and out into the prairies of North Dakota. Lots of diversity,” Ketchmark said.
With the trail's designation, Michigan now has six national park units: Isle Royale National Park, Keweenaw National Historic Park, the North Country National Scenic Trail, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, River Raisin National Battlefield Park, and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
