Grayling Visitors Bureau

This section of road is now open.

Damage from log truck traffic, combined with the rain we’ve gotten over the last week, made it necessary to close a segment of South Branch Road between Ranch Road and Mason Tract Trail.  Mason Tract Trail and the rest of South Branch Road are open (please see the attached map).  This is the background on the situation:

Log truck traffic from a State timber harvest made a portion of South Branch Road impassible Monday.  At least two vehicles got stuck. All logging operations are suspended until summer.  The logger removed the last of his equipment yesterday. The County Road Commission had to close 2.2 miles of South Branch Road in order to divert traffic off of two rutted, muddy spots.

Gravel had been brought in, but the recent heavy rains have made grading impossible; the rutted spots have deep soupy mud. The closed portion of road cannot be worked on until it dries out, meaning it will have to remain closed through this weekend.

Although that 2.2 mile stretch is closed, all fishing access points along the South Branch of the AuSable River within the S Branch Road Partial Closure map