Marquette County in Michigan's Upper Peninsula is a very beautiful and large area of land.

In fact. there are over 66,000 people who call Marquette County their permanent home. Why? Because there is so much to see and do including visiting highlands wilderness.

99.1 WFMK logo
Get our free mobile app

Here's the best part, highlands wilderness in Marquette County was recently gifted 1,300 pristine acres of extra land. It was a gift from the Upper Peninsula Land Conservancy to the Michigan department of Natural Resources.

According to mlive.com:

The gifted property is home to wildlife including moose, bears, wolves and loons. It also contains most of the watershed that fills Indian Lake-headquarters of the West Branch of the Peshekee River-and has 10 miles of hiking trails that connect to the park.

It sounds great especially the 10 miles of hiking trails that connect directly to highlands wilderness.

I love new areas that I've never seen before and hiking new trails is something my wife and I really enjoy. The only part that I would be concerned about is seeing wolves or bears somewhere along the trails.

Mlive.com adds:

The gift will ensure the land remains open to the public while providing additional recreation opportunities, including hiking, hunting, trapping and fishing, the DNR said.

Does this mean if I see a wild bear I can just shoot it? Most likely that will never happen, but you never know.

There is such a vast area of land to explore in the Upper Peninsula at highlands wilderness state park. And now that they've been gifted an additional 1,300 acres, it's time to plan a visit to Marquette County to enjoy the "Great Wilderness" of the U.P.

Here's more information about Marquette County courtesy of travelmarquettecounty.com.

LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.

More From 99.1 WFMK