Michigan has about 11,000 inland lakes (a state count gives 11,037) covering 3,380 km² (1,305 square miles), and it borders four of the five Great Lakes: Superior, Michigan, Huron and Erie, plus Lake St. Clair between them. The largest inland lake is Houghton Lake, at 81 km² (20,044 acres); the longest and deepest is Torch Lake, 31 km (19 miles) long and 94 m (310 ft) deep. No point in the state is more than about 9.7 km (6 miles) from a natural water source or 137 km (85 miles) from a Great Lakes shoreline. The water also sets the state's vertical range. The highest ground is in the Huron Mountains, where Mount Arvon and Mount Curwood both reach about 603 m (1,979 ft). The lowest point is the surface of Lake Erie, at 174 m (571 ft). Following the water downhill from one to the other is the clearest way to see how Michigan's lakes fit together.
Mount Arvon and Mount Curwood, 603 m above sea level
The descent begins in Baraga County in the Upper Peninsula, on two wooded summits a few kilometers apart in L'Anse Township. For decades Mount Curwood was listed as the state high point, until a 1982 survey put Mount Arvon, at 1,979 ft, one foot higher. Surveys of both peaks in 2025 reversed that, finding Curwood about 12 cm (0.4 ft) the taller. Both stand at about 603 m, and either way this is the highest natural ground in the East North Central states.
From Mount Arvon the land falls about 420 m to Lake Superior, only 13 km (8 miles) to the north. The summit soils are sandy glacial till, the mark of an ice sheet that scraped the whole state and left the hollows that became its lakes. Water leaving these hills does not reach the Mississippi: apart from two tiny areas that reach the Mississippi by way of the Wisconsin and Kankakee-Illinois rivers, Michigan drains to the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, and it is the only state with most of its land in that watershed. The two peninsulas themselves are covered in our guide to Michigan's geography.
Lake of the Clouds and Lake Gogebic in the western Upper Peninsula
West of the Huron Mountains, the Porcupine Mountains rise near the Lake Superior shore in Ontonagon and Gogebic counties, topping out at Summit Peak, 595 m (1,958 ft). They form the divide between streams flowing to Lake Superior and those flowing to Lake Michigan, and they hold at least 13,000 hectares (31,000 acres) of old-growth northern hardwood forest, the largest stand west of the Adirondacks.
Lake of the Clouds lies in the heart of the range, in a valley between two parallel ridges. The Carp River feeds it from the east and drains it from the west, running on to Lake Superior at the Ontonagon–Gogebic county line. Most people see it from the overlook at the western end of the former highway M-107, looking down on water enclosed by forest on every side.
A little south, near the Wisconsin border, Lake Gogebic is the largest natural inland lake in the Upper Peninsula. It lies within the Ottawa National Forest, spans two counties and even two time zones, Central and Eastern. Although it is a natural lake, its level is now set by the Bergland Dam downstream on the West Branch of the Ontonagon River.
Higgins Lake and Houghton Lake at the head of the Muskegon River
Across the Straits of Mackinac, in the middle of the Lower Peninsula, the land is highest around Cadillac, where Briar Hill or one of several nearby points reaches about 520 m (1,705 ft). To the east, in Roscommon County, two big lakes sit next to each other on a watershed divide. Higgins Lake covers about 4,000 hectares (9,900 acres) and reaches 41 m (135 ft) deep. Half of its water comes from submerged springs, water stays in it for about 12.5 years on average, and the lake is known for its deep, clear water. Only 1.6 km (1 mile) north of its shore, streams turn toward Lake Huron instead.
Higgins Lake empties through Marl Lake and the Cut River into Houghton Lake, the largest inland lake in the state. Houghton is about 16 km (10 miles) long and 8.9 km (5.5 miles) wide, with roughly 48 km (30 miles) of shoreline. It is named after Douglass Houghton, Michigan's first state geologist, and every winter it hosts Tip-Up-Town USA, an ice-fishing festival held out on the frozen lake. From its North Bay the lake spills into the Muskegon River, which carries the water west to Lake Michigan.
Lake Superior at 183 m and the 6.4 m drop at Sault Ste. Marie
The highest of the Great Lakes is Lake Superior, whose average surface sits about 183 m (600 ft) above sea level. It is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area, and Michigan's share of it contains Isle Royale, a 535 km² (207 square mile) island 72 km (45 miles) long. Isle Royale's highest point, Mount Desor, stands at 425 m (1,394 ft), about 240 m above the lake. On the mainland shore, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore follows 68 km (42 miles) of coast between Munising and Grand Marais, including 21 km (13 miles) of mineral-stained sandstone cliffs up to 60 m (200 ft) high.
Superior drains out through the St. Marys River at Sault Ste. Marie, where the water falls 6.4 m (21 ft) over a set of rapids. The Soo Locks, first opened in 1855, lift ships past that drop, handling about 10,000 vessels a year even though ice closes them from January to March. That fall is most of the roughly 8 m (25 ft) difference between Superior and Lake Huron.
Torch Lake, Lake Charlevoix and the Inland Waterway
In the northwest Lower Peninsula a cluster of long, narrow lakes lies just inland of Lake Michigan and drains into it. Torch Lake in Antrim County is the standout: 31 km long, 76 km² (29.3 square miles) in area, 94 m deep at its deepest and 34 m on average, which makes it the state's longest and deepest inland lake and its largest by volume. It began as a bay of the young Lake Michigan after the ice retreated, until sandbars closed off its northern end. Lake Leelanau and Elk Lake formed the same way. Its name comes from the Ojibwe waaswaaganing, "place of torches", after the torches local people once carried at night to draw fish for spearing.
Next door, Lake Charlevoix covers more than 70 km² (17,200 acres) with 90 km (56 miles) of shoreline and reaches 37 m (122 ft) deep. It was called Pine Lake until 1926, and the Ironton Ferry has crossed its south arm since 1876. The Jordan River feeds it at East Jordan, and a short outlet through Round Lake takes its water into Lake Michigan at Charlevoix.
Farther northeast, a chain of lakes drains the other way, to Lake Huron. The Inland Waterway runs 61 km (38 miles) from Crooked Lake through Burt Lake and Mullett Lake and down the Cheboygan River. Burt Lake, 69.3 km² (17,120 acres), and Mullett Lake are named after William Austin Burt and John Mullett, who surveyed the area for the federal government between 1840 and 1843. Native Americans used the route to avoid the rough waters off Waugoshance Point on Lake Michigan.
Lakes Michigan and Huron: one surface at 176 m
Every stream so far ends up in the same body of water. Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are joined at the Straits of Mackinac, 8 km (5 miles) wide and 90 m (295 ft) deep, and they share one water level, about 176 m (577.5 ft) above sea level. Hydrologically they are one lake, and together, at about 117,600 km² (45,400 square miles) combined, they make the largest freshwater lake in the world by area.
Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake entirely within the United States. It covers 58,030 km² (22,404 square miles), of which 34,280 km² (13,237 square miles) lie within Michigan, and reaches 281 m (923 ft) at its deepest. Its eastern shore holds Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, established on 21 October 1970, which protects 56 km (35 miles) of coast and the North and South Manitou islands. Lake Huron, at 59,570 km² (23,000 square miles), is the larger of the two and reaches 229 m (750 ft). Its Michigan shore includes Saginaw Bay and the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, created in 2000 over 1,160 km² (448 square miles) to protect shipwrecks and expanded in 2014 to 11,137 km² (4,300 square miles). Our Lake Michigan guide covers that lake's shores in more detail.
Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, Michigan's lowest ground at 174 m
The water leaves Lake Huron through the 65 km (40.5 mile) St. Clair River and spreads into Lake St. Clair, a shallow basin of about 1,100 km² (430 square miles) on the Michigan–Ontario border. French explorers named it in 1679 after Saint Clare of Assisi, whose feast day it was when they first saw it. Its average depth is only 3.4 m (11 ft), so a 9.1 m (30 ft) shipping channel has been dredged through it for more than a century. The Detroit River then carries the water past Belle Isle and Grosse Ile into Lake Erie.
Lake Erie is the last and lowest stop. Its mean surface sits at 174 m (571 ft), which is also the lowest point in Michigan, reached along the state's short Lake Erie shore at the lake's western end. Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes, only 64 m (210 ft) at its deepest, and the only one whose bed never drops below sea level. From the summits of the Huron Mountains to this shore, Michigan's water has fallen about 430 m. Beyond Erie it heads for the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, and you can follow the rest of the system in our overview of what the Great Lakes are.