Welcome to Natures’ Best! Beautiful scenery abounds in every corner of the Tawas Bay area, from the shoreline of Lake Huron to the storied Au Sable River. The area provides a hundred reasons to have one great vacation for the entire family. The Tawas Bay area is a people-friendly area that still has that wonderful “Up-North/Small Town” appeal.

When we left Tawas, we took the most scenic drive to our destination, Monument Road. This drive will start your color tour winding through the autumn beauty of the Huron-Manistee National Forest and avoiding the traffic of US-23. Quicker, more colorful, easy to get to and less traffic. Perfect!

Lumberman’s Monument Visitor Center interprets the area’s colorful lumbering past. The 14-foot Lumberman’s Monument stands on a high bank with the Au Sable River providing a scenic backdrop. Learn about the industry that helped develop northern Michigan and the men who cut the timber that helped build a nation. Climb through a log jam, use a peavey, cut a wooden cookie with a cross-cut saw, and learn about the life of a lumberjack through video and displays. Hike the stairway down to the wanigan, a loggers floating kitchen, or take the short trail to the dune observation deck. Enjoy a Kid’s Day program or take a guided nature hike.

The Au Sable is known for its high water quality, scenery, recreational opportunities, cold-water fishery, and historic and cultural significance. It may just be the finest brown trout fly-fishing east of the Rockies. If that were not enough reason to visit the river, the Au Sable is also one of the best canoeing rivers in the Midwest. This section of the AuSable River provides motorboat opportunities with a lake fishing atmosphere. Its flow of water still serves as an important link in the production of the state's electrical power supply.

Historic points of interest in the Cooke Pond area include the Wanigan and the Rollways. Wanigan is a borrowing of Ojibwa waanikaan, or "storage pit. It denoted a boat containing small supplies for a lumber camp, or the camp provisions in general. The Wanigan that was used on the AuSable was mainly used for cooking and feeding the workers. The Rollways are the areas that the Lumberman cleared from the top of the hill down to the water to roll their logs down to the river so they can be gathered a lot easier than hauling them through the wood.

The Eagle's Nest Overlook is one of the most famous overlooks on the Huron National Forest. The Nest is just west of the visitor center and has been used by a pair of bald eagles since about 1985. Rare is the fall day that you do not see eagles soaring over Cooke Pond. The view into the nest is better if you remember to bring binoculars of at least six power. Accessible parking is available. The path to the observation area is paved and over 36' wide. The observation deck is paved.

Paddlers enjoy the calm, but swift paddling of the river and the lake-like atmosphere below the impoundments. Canoeing the AuSable River is a family tradition that you and your kids will always remember. Older teenagers, college students and adults enjoy heading down the AuSable in any combination of inner tubes, canoes and kayaks.