West Michigan Kayaking Club · River Guide
Betsie River
Lower Peninsula Paddle Guide
Wild Rivers. Rugged Trails. Real Adventure.
Before you launch: the upper Betsie is narrow, fast and full of tight hairpin bends. Sweepers and downed trees reach into the channel and can appear after any storm. Homestead Dam is a sea lamprey barrier. Never run it. Take out at the DNR Homestead Dam access and carry around. Late summer brings shallow gravel flats where you may have to walk your boat. Spring high water is pushy and not a beginner trip. Beyond Betsie Lake is open Lake Michigan, so don't paddle out the Frankfort channel in wind or waves.
American Whitewater: not rated, so this guide lists it as Class I. Riffles and standing waves can feel stronger at high water.
River History
The Betsie's name comes from the French la rivière aux Bec-scies, "river of the sawbill ducks," for the mergansers that still work its riffles. Over time the name was worn down to Betsie, and another variant gave Benzie County its name. Turn-of-the-century logging left its mark: fisheries biologists point to old log-drive practices as the likely reason the upper river runs much wider and shallower than it naturally would.
Dams came and went in the 20th century. The Grass Lake Dam was built in 1951 to create waterfowl and northern pike habitat. Homestead Dam, once a Consumers Energy power site, was mostly removed in 1974 and now serves as a sea lamprey barrier. The old Thompsonville power dam failed in spring 1989 and was removed, reopening the whole mainstream to salmon and trout. The Betsie became a state-designated Natural River in 1973, protected from its mouth at Betsie Lake upstream to the Grass Lake Dam.
ommunities- Interlochen (headwaters area)
- Karlin
- Thompsonville
- Benzonia / Beulah area
- Elberta and Frankfort (mouth)
Mouth
Betsie Lake, then Lake Michigan through the Frankfort harbor.