Everything worth doing.Within 20 minutes.

A hillside tasting room on Clam Lake Road that the owners built themselves — mosaic floors, a rustic wood staircase, and a 25-foot cupola looking down over Lake Bellaire toward Torch Lake. Estate wines and hard ciders come with a rotating spread of local cheese and artisan food. Open until 9 p.m. most nights, later than most tasting rooms in the area — the deck is the seat to ask for at sunset.

A laid-back waterfront spot on the Clam River channel into Torch Lake — arrive by car or by boat and tie up right at the patio. Burgers, baskets, deli sandwiches, and a Mexican menu alongside frozen cocktails, with outdoor seating that fills fast on a July Saturday. Open daily from 11 a.m. May through August; April and September–October run shorter, Thursday-through-Sunday weeks. Check the seasonal hours before making the drive in shoulder season.

Joe Short opened this pub in 2004 inside a 100-year-old former hardware store on Bridge Street — the original location of what's now one of Michigan's best-known breweries. Twenty beers and Starcut Ciders run on tap, house-made pretzels and pizza cover the food, and local art and live performances fill the room most weekends. This is the pub that put Bellaire on the state's craft-beer map before the Elk Rapids facility existed.

The production side of Short's operation, purchased and renovated in 2008 to scale batches past what the Bellaire pub could handle — now brewing roughly 30,000 barrels a year. The Pull Barn taproom started as a summer beer garden in 2017 and went year-round and indoor in 2021, with lake views and twenty beers on tap, all brewed on site. Worth the short detour south of the Chain of Lakes for the completists.

A 3-acre township park on Pub Dock Road with 75 feet of buoyed swimming beach, two rentable pavilions, picnic tables, restrooms, and a boat launch that runs a separate $20 trailer fee. Open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily from mid-May through Labor Day. Parking itself is free, which isn't a given on this lake, and the small size keeps it from ever feeling like a state-park crowd.

A 1,502-acre preserve on the Alden Highway between Alden and Bellaire, with seven miles of trail including a mile and a half of boardwalk over a northern fen and cedar wetland. Kayaking covers the Grass River, Lake Bellaire, and Clam Lake from the same put-in. The nature center runs daily 10 to 4 May through October, weekends only the rest of the year, and a natural playground for ages two to five opened in 2025.

A family orchard on M-88 since 1980, growing 180-plus acres of Montmorency tart cherries alongside Balaton cherries, apples, raspberries, and stone fruit. U-pick runs through the whole season — strawberries into cherries into apples — and the donut fryer and cherry cider garden turn a produce stop into a half-afternoon with kids. A play area sits right next to the cider garden, built for parents who'd rather not chase toddlers between rows.

Saturdays, 2 to 6 p.m., downtown Alden next to Higgins Store — produce, baked goods, and local crafts running mid-May through Columbus Day weekend. The market shares its Monday evenings with the Alden Car Cruise, 4 to 7 p.m., if a Saturday doesn't work with the trip. Small enough to walk in fifteen minutes, worth the stop anyway for whatever's peaking that week.

A Torch Lake fixture for more than thirty years on Crystal Springs Road, five minutes north of the sandbar — tritoon, jet ski, and speedboat rentals alongside a deli slinging broasted chicken, a full liquor and wine selection, tackle, and Torch Lake apparel. Open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. It's the rare place that covers the boat, the lunch, and the six-pack for the ride back in one stop.

The state-maintained launch at the Torch River Bridge — two lanes, a skid pier, a carry-down spot for kayaks and paddleboards, and a vault toilet after a recent round of upgrades. A Recreation Passport or $12 launch fee gets you in. This is the direct route to the sandbar by water, which also makes it the busiest ramp on the lake on any warm summer weekend.

Family-run since 1949 at the mouth of the Clam River, where it empties into Torch Lake — more than 285 wet and dry slips, indoor storage for upward of 800 boats, and a dealership for Bennington, Sylvan, Premier, and Yacht Club Marine. Gas and pump-out service run alongside a store stocked with both food and boating supplies. A live webcam on the river runs around the clock for anyone checking conditions before the drive up.

A spice shop on Torch Lake Drive that's been custom-blending seasonings since 1984, built around Chef Geno's Miracle Blend and now stocking more than thirty other house blends alongside kosher flake salt, kitchen gadgets, and gift boxes. Open weekdays only, 10 to 5. It's the stop locals send visitors to before they ask for a lake house souvenir that isn't a t-shirt.

A 5,500-acre resort spread across four villages a few minutes from downtown Bellaire — five golf courses (Cedar River is the one locals rank first), Schuss Mountain's ski runs in winter, and more than 275 lodging units across the property. Not on Torch Lake itself, but close enough that a lake week and a Shanty Creek round of golf or a lift ticket routinely share the same trip.

A shallow shelf running nearly two miles at the south end of the lake near the Torch River Bridge, where the water reads Caribbean-turquoise over a white marl bottom. Hundreds of boats raft together here on a July Saturday or the Fourth of July, music and coolers included. No boat needed to see it — the Lake Street public access point in Rapid City gets you there on foot in five to ten minutes, water waist-deep most of the way.