Patios that put out a water bowl without being asked. Trails that don't require leashes when nobody's looking. Breweries with a yard. Beaches off-season.
A 3,033-acre state recreation area between Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, ten minutes from Augusta — three lakes, the Kalamazoo River, and more than forty miles of trail split between hikers, mountain bikers, and equestrians. The swimming beach and boat rentals cover a lake day that doesn't require Gull Lake access; the campground handles both modern and equestrian sites. Second-growth forest and remnant prairie make the terrain more varied than most county parks nearby.
About a half hour northwest in Barry County, built around Gun Lake and Deep Lake rather than Gull Lake itself — worth the drive for mountain bikers, since Yankee Springs runs some of the better singletrack in southwest Michigan. Two swimming beaches, boat launches, and a campground round out the rest. Not a Gull Lake amenity in the strict sense, but the region's default answer when a trail day needs more elevation than the lakeshore offers.