Ever-ambitious beavers continually dam drainages, creating seven major ponds. In the northeast, at the edge of the wetlands, seven-acre Spring Lake forms the headwaters of Spring Lake Creek. Wildlife native to the area include bald eagles, ospreys, sandhill cranes, great blue herons, pileated woodpeckers, ruffed grouse, black bears, raccoons, pine martens, minks, muskrats, red squirrels, and snowshoe hares. White-tailed deer winter here in thick stands of trees. Most visitors come for Mackinac's most notable feature, the Carp River.
Canoeists find the paddling easy with only a few minor rapids near the center of the area.
Brook, rainbow, and brown trout spawn in the Carp and its tributaries, luring anglers. Traveling off the river in Mackinac is a challenge that few humans accept. There are no trails. Although some broken bedrock can cause you to twist your ankle, foot travel in the northern portion rates as fairly easy. The southern portion is mostly tangled with shrubs or wet and mucky.