Michigan's Tunnel of Trees at Peak Color: Your Fall M-119 Drive Guide (Detours Included)

Introduction: The Tunnel Is Peaking — With Detours

There is a twenty-mile stretch of Michigan's M-119 where the road is too narrow for a centerline, where the canopy of oaks, maples, birch, and cedar closes overhead into a literal tunnel, and where, for about one week each October, driving beneath it feels like being inside a stained-glass window. That week is right now: the Tunnel of Trees typically peaks October 5–13, and today is October 5.

But 2026 is not a normal year on this road, and almost every guide you'll find was written as though it were. Heavy spring snowmelt in April and another round of storms in June washed out sections of M-119, and Michigan's Department of Transportation is still rebuilding. One section reopened in September; two others remain closed to through traffic, one of them until summer 2027.

Here's the good news: nearly every stop and business along the corridor is still reachable, and with a little detour planning this might be the best year in a decade to see the tunnel without the usual peak-weekend gridlock. This is your complete fall 2026 guide.

What Happened: Floods, a Retaining Wall, and Two Closures

The Tunnel of Trees is the scenic stretch of M-119 running north from Harbor Springs to Cross Village in Emmet County, at the top of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. It follows an old Ottawa trail along the Lake Michigan bluff, and MDOT is blunt about its personality: "M-119 is not a road for those in a hurry." It's a narrow, winding two-laner with hairpin turns, blind curves, and shoulders that range from minimal to nonexistent — the Discovery Channel once named it one of the Top 10 Motorcycle Rides in North America.

That fragility met a brutal spring. April snowmelt damaged several sections, and June storms piled on more destruction, including a culvert failure that washed out the roadway entirely in places. MDOT has been repairing ever since:

• Reopened September 3, 2026: M-119 between West Stutsmanville Road and Terpening Road, after a $300,000 slope-stabilization project installed a retaining wall and new guardrails. Finishing work continues, so expect occasional single-lane closures.
• Still closed — Devil's Elbow: The famous hairpin between Stutsmanville and Good Hart has damage extending far down the slope. MDOT has given no firm timeline; State Senator John Damoose recently suggested full repairs there could take until 2028.
• Still closed — Division Road section: Between Good Hart and Cross Village, where a culvert failed completely. MDOT expects this stretch to stay closed until summer 2027.

The result: you cannot currently drive the corridor straight through from Harbor Springs to Cross Village in one continuous run. But both communities — and almost every stop in between — remain open and reachable via signed detours.

The Drive: Harbor Springs to Cross Village, 2026 Edition

Start in Harbor Springs, the charming resort town on Little Traverse Bay, and head north. Fuel up there — there are no gas stations anywhere on the corridor. Then drive the open southern stretch of M-119 north to West Stutsmanville Road. Here's where your detours kick in.

To reach Good Hart (and the Devil's Elbow detour): Follow M-119 to Stutsmanville Road, turn onto Townline/Church Road, then left on Robinson Road into Good Hart. The detour adds time but passes through farmland that has its own autumn charm.

To reach Cross Village (and the Division Road detour): Take State Road north out of Harbor Springs — MDOT's posted detour runs via Island View Road and North State Road. Plan for 3–4 hours total to see both sides rather than the usual 40 minutes straight through.

Don't-miss stops, north to south (reachable in 2026):

• Thorne Swift Nature Preserve — just north of Harbor Springs, short trails through the same maple-beech forest that forms the canopy. Dogs are not allowed here, so plan accordingly.
• Pond Hill Farm — a working farm with a market, animals, cider and doughnuts; the ideal kid-friendly leg-stretcher before the narrow road begins.
• Good Hart General Store — the corridor's unofficial waypoint. Part general store, part deli, part post office, part gathering place — grab cookies and provisions here.
• Woollam Family Nature Preserve — one of the only substantial public shoreline access points along the tunnel, with roughly 4,000 feet of Lake Michigan beach below the bluff. Parking is limited to designated areas.
• Devil's Elbow — you can't drive through it this year, but the detour roads (Stutsmanville, Townline, Church, Robinson) skirt it, and it's worth knowing you're passing Michigan's most dramatic hairpin while on the bypass.
• Cross Village — the tunnel's northern end, and the reward for the detour.
• Legs Inn — the essential finish. Polish immigrant Stanley Smolak built this stone-and-driftwood roadhouse in the 1930s with the labor of Odawa and local craftspeople, carving furniture from roots and driftwood and trimming the roofline with inverted cast-iron stove legs. It serves Polish food overlooking Lake Michigan and has no real analogue anywhere else in Michigan. Seasonal critical intel: Legs Inn runs through October 25, 2026, serves noon to 8 p.m., is closed Tuesdays, takes no reservations, and doesn't allow dogs. Go early in the week if you can — peak weekends bring a long wait.
• Wilderness State Park — just past the north end of the drive; the Lake Michigan shoreline continues with hardwoods running down to the water.

Going northbound keeps the lake views opening up ahead of you and builds the stops in the right order, from provisions to finale.

Driving It in 2026: The Fine Print

The detours are well-signed, but this is still a fragile road in an active construction year. Plan like it.

Before you go:

1. Check the Petoskey Area closure page the morning of your drive. MDOT's repair timelines have shifted before, and detour routes follow the washouts. This is the single most important tip for 2026.
2. Fuel up in Harbor Springs or Cross Village. There is no gas, no EV charging, and very few public restrooms anywhere on the corridor. Treat Harbor Springs as the last reliable provisioning stop.
3. Budget 3–4 hours, not 40 minutes. The detours plus peak-week traffic mean this is a half-day excursion. Don't schedule anything tight afterward.
4. Drive it on a weekday morning if you can. On a peak color weekend, this narrow lane-and-a-half carries more traffic than its geometry comfortably allows. Early weekday mornings are the sweet spot — color, light, and relative quiet.
5. Leave the RV and trailer at home. This road was never meant for them: hairpin turns, low-hanging canopy, blind curves. Even ordinary cars should slow well below the posted 45 mph.
6. Respect that almost everything beside the road is private. The tunnel threads through private property for miles. Don't park on shoulders or lawns, don't litter, and use only designated pullouts and preserves.
7. Dress for the lake. Fall on the Lake Michigan bluff is cooler and windier than the forecast for Harbor Springs suggests. Bring layers.

When to Go

Right now. The canopy turns in late September and peaks around October 5–13 in most years, and northwest Michigan was still reporting low-to-moderate color in the last week of September — the best days are ahead, not behind. Late October is still lovely but thins out, and Legs Inn closes October 25.

Beyond fall: spring brings miles of trillium carpeting the forest floor beneath bare trees — arguably the corridor's most distinctive season and a fraction of the crowd. Summer is green and busy; winter empties the road entirely, closes most businesses, and rewards travelers equipped for a narrow, snowy, unlit road with no centerline.

One 2026-specific note: the detours are your friend. The signed bypasses move you off the closed sections and through countryside most drivers never see, and they'll be part of the story for at least another year. The tunnel will outlast the construction.

The Bottom Line

The Tunnel of Trees is Michigan's crown jewel of scenic byways precisely because it refuses to be a normal highway: no centerline, no shoulder, no hurry. The floods of 2026 broke parts of it, but they didn't break the experience — they just rerouted it. Drive the open southern stretch out of Harbor Springs, detour into Good Hart, loop up State Road to Cross Village, and finish with Polish food in a stone roadhouse at the end of the world.

Peak color lasts days, not weeks. Check the closures, fill the tank, and go. Craving more fall color? Our Blue Ridge Parkway fall guide covers 75 freshly rebuilt miles in North Carolina's High Country.