Other Winter Activities

Ice Skating

Is there anything as graceful and romantic as an hour spent on skates? Fortunately, there are dozens of ice skating rinks in and around Traverse City, where each town has its own outdoor rink. In Traverse City, the favorite one is on 14th St. near Pine.  There is also one located at F & M Park on the corner of State Street and Railroad. You can also ice skate at Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, where you can rent skates too. 
And you needn’t be discouraged by warm weather or the occasional midwinter thaw, since the city has two indoor rinks: Howe Arena at the Grand Traverse Civic Center and Centre ICE on Hammond Rd. – the same rink where the Detroit Red Wings hold their fall practice camp!

Sledding

It’s one of the easiest ways to enjoy winter in Northern Michigan: just grab a sled, pull it to the top of a steep hill, and let gravity take you back down to the bottom. You can’t fall because you’re already sitting down. The Traverse City area has lots of fun little sledding hills, like the one at Grace MacDonald Park in East Bay Township (High Lake Road and E. Arbutus Lake Road) or the college observatory hill on Birmley Road. Almost every little village in the surrounding area has its own sledding hill. But the biggest sledding thrill is undoubtedly at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, where the famous Dune Climb – all 260 feet of it – is open for sledding.

Ice Fishing

Traverse City is famed for its fishing, and there’s no need to put away your tackle when winter comes. In fact, for those hardy souls who are willing to venture out on the ice, the months between December and April can be the most enticing of the year. Big toothy pike, tasty walleye and perch, plenty of bluegills, and even the occasional foolhardy bass are active under the ice in Grand Traverse Bay, Boardman Lake and the dozens of other inland lakes that surround Traverse City. And somehow, a fish tastes even better when you’ve waited all day in the cold to make its acquaintance. All you need is some basic equipment and a whole lot of patience

Iceboating

Everything has to be just right – crisp, cold weather, thick  polished ice and a strong steady wind. But when it happens, the members of the Grand Traverse Ice Yacht Club pull their iceboats out and start racing across one of our long glacial lakes. We wouldn’t recommend that you try the sport without proper instruction, but it’s a fascinating spectator event: it’s fast, almost entirely silent and utterly beautiful to watch.. Elk Lake, just northeast of town, is one of the favorite regatta sites.