CADILLAC — This week in Wexford County, people got to check out a 100-plus-mile scenic route for ORV riders.
The Cadillac Area Visitors Bureau unveiled the new ORV scenic ride during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Caberfae Trailhead.
Kathy Morin, executive director of the Cadillac Area Visitors Bureau, said the Cadillac area is a popular destination for snowmobiling, having 200 miles of groomed snowmobile trails.
With ORVing becoming increasingly popular in Michigan, they said they saw an opportunity to position the region as an ORV destination, while also bringing in more tourism dollars to the area.
“The new ride covers about 100 miles or so. It connects from down this direction by county crossing Caberfae into Lake County, all the way up to Ellen’s Corners, and a whole lot of places in between,” said Morin.
Morin said the new route is the culmination of two years of planning, as well as collaborating with many community partners, including the US Forest Service.
Public affairs specialist for the U.S. Forest Service Travis Owens said in 2021 they changed the regulations to allow ORVs on forest service roads.
“We made that change to align it so that when a user crosses jurisdictions, so say you go from an open forest road to a county road, you know that that road is going to remain open. So that the user doesn’t have the burden of determining whether or not they’re legally allowed to be there,” Owens said.
Owens said since the change, more people have been ORVing - which naturally led to more inquiries about the activity.
“We started getting those questions from riders, people who wanted to experience the forest. ‘Where should I go? How do I ride? What is the speed limit? Is it different from the county?’ And they just had a lot of questions pertaining to using this new resource that we opened,” said Morin.
Owens says it seemed like a great idea to team up with the visitor’s bureau.
“These allow for visitors to see more of the National Forest because they can travel at faster speeds,” said Owens.
Morin said it’s also great for bringing more foot traffic to the area.
“It’s great for those businesses that might be a little off the beaten path looking for additional visitors. It gives us another opportunity to promote another recreation opportunity and the tourism part of things,” said Morin.
Morin said they hope to expand the route to connect to more neighboring counties down the road.
For more information about the new scenic route, please click here.
