This page is about habitat, not about anybody's spots. The point is to teach you to read ground so you can find your own, which is the only kind of spot worth having.
Loading station observations.
Morels associate with particular trees, and in Michigan the names that come up again and again are ash, elm, and oak, with old apple trees a distant but real fourth. Dying and recently dead elm is the classic. The association is not fully understood and it is not a guarantee, but it is strong enough that experienced hunters look at bark before they look at the ground.
The practical version: learn to recognise ash and elm in early spring, before leaves are out, from bark and form. That single skill will change your hit rate more than any other piece of knowledge on this site, and it is the reason people who grew up doing this seem to find them effortlessly. They are not scanning the leaf litter. They are scanning the canopy and then the litter underneath the right tree.
Moist but well drained is the phrase, and both halves matter. Morels want damp soil and will not produce in ground that has dried out, but they also do not come out of standing water or heavy saturated clay. River bottoms, wooded slopes above a creek, and old floodplain terraces are the classic settings because they hold moisture and still drain.
Aspect drives timing within a single piece of ground. South facing slopes take more sun and warm first, so early in the local season that is where to start. As the season progresses the advantage shifts to shadier north facing ground, which stays cool and damp after the sunny banks have dried and finished. Working aspect deliberately can stretch a ten day local window into three weeks.
Disturbed ground produces. Logged areas, old two tracks, the edges of clearings, and above all recently burned forest are all known to fruit heavily, sometimes spectacularly in the first season or two after a fire. This is most relevant in the northern lower peninsula and the Upper Peninsula, where the large burns happen and where there is enough public land to hunt them.
The Michigan DNR publishes a map of recent large burn areas specifically because morel hunters ask for it, which tells you how well established this pattern is. If you are planning a trip north and want ground that has not been walked flat, recent burns on public land are the most reliable public information there is. Check current access and any fire area closures with the DNR before you drive.
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.
Michigan has a great deal of state forest, national forest, and state game area, and morel hunting for personal use is broadly permitted on much of it. Rules differ between state land, national forest, and state parks, and commercial harvest is a different matter entirely with its own permits. Check the specific unit before you go rather than assuming.
The etiquette is simpler and unwritten. Do not ask people where they hunt, because the question is rude and the answer will be a lie. Do not park in a way that advertises a spot. Do not pick a patch clean. Cut rather than pull, carry them in mesh so spores drop as you walk, and leave the small ones for the next person, who might be you next week.