Roughly five weeks behind the southern tier. When the downstate season is finished, this is where the wave has gone.
Towns and reference points: Sault Ste Marie, Newberry, Escanaba. In 2026 the modelled window here opened around May 19, which is one year and not a schedule.
Loading station observations.
The eastern UP is the late end of the Michigan season, and that is its entire advantage. Hunters who follow the wave north get a second and third season out of one spring, and by the time it opens up here the crowds have gone home.
Lake Superior and Lake Huron both moderate this ground, holding it cold well into May and then holding it mild afterward. Cedar edges and mixed hardwood stands are the setting rather than the open hardwood bottoms of the south.
This site tells you when to look. It will never tell you what is safe to eat. False morels grow in the same woods at the same time of year and people are hospitalised by them in Michigan every spring. Some contain gyromitrin, which can cause severe poisoning and has killed people.
Learn identification in person, from someone qualified, before you eat a single mushroom. Michigan runs a certified wild mushroom expert programme, and the Michigan Mushroom Hunters Club holds forays where you can learn from people who know. If you are not certain, do not eat it. Certainty means certain, not fairly sure. What false morels look like.
Morel season is a wave, so the useful question is not only what is happening here but how far the front has moved. If this region has finished, the answer is north.
Kalamazoo, Jackson, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids. Opened April 14 in 2026.
Lansing, Saginaw, Flint, Mount Pleasant. Opened April 14 in 2026.
Cadillac, Traverse City, Gaylord, Houghton Lake. Opened April 17 in 2026.