The Detroit Mountains: Exploring the Jackson Interlobate Range

Home of the Detroit region's best mountain biking trails, ski runs, backpacking ridges, and hiking gems, this article explores the past and present of the "Detroit Mountains"- southeast Michigan's glacial Jackson Interlobate Range.

Growing up, I liked reading maps. We're talking battlefield maps, geographic encyclopedias - even fake maps from fictional worlds like Middle Earth, Kanto/Johto, and Narnia. Yes, I'm also the geography nerd on my local bar trivia team, and we've got the gift card winnings to back up the extensiveness of this very specific genre of knowledge. So we'll see if you're still laughing when the final jeopardy category comes up as African geography...

Anyways, as I grew up, this random childhood peculiarity gradually evolved into a decades-long interest in scouting backcountry routes, planning international trips, and utilizing satellite imaging via Google Maps to identify "hole in the wall" or hidden gem outdoor destinations. I loaned this skillset to Expedition Detroit when first building out our "Destinations Map," a near-exhaustive collection of every park, trailhead, launching point, ski resort, and other noteworthy outdoor space within an hour's drive of Downtown Detroit. What was my complex, algorithmic methodology for identifying such spaces?

I opened Google Maps and looked for the color green. Seriously.

And the darker the green, the more expansive the outdoor space.

Here's a screenshot for reference:

Yes, this non-satellite layer omits a multitude of incredible outdoor spaces within the core of Metro Detroit. However, glance over at the western edge of this map - the extensive, darkest shade of green that runs largely consecutively from Grass Lake to north or Auburn Hills. An area whose scope includes several of our region's most beloved "Trail Towns," including Brighton, Chelsea, Holly, Lake Orion, Milford, and Pinckney.

If you dig a little deeper, you'll soon realize that this area also constitutes one of the largest and most unique, rugged, adventurous, historic, and collectively protected swaths of land found within the entire Great Lakes region. The home of 12 Michigan state parks and recreation areas, 5 Michigan state game and wildlife areas, 4 Huron-Clinton Metroparks, 2 county parks, and several independent natural preservation areas.

This coveted area is the focal point of this article: the massive area geologically identified as the Jackson Interlobate Range (the "JIR"), but we'd like to informally dub it here as the "Detroit Mountains."

SHORT HISTORY OF DETROIT'S TALLEST RANGE

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