Clare: Rail Trail, Irish Festival, and Local Discoveries

Clare, Michigan, offers several ways to shape your stay: a paved rail trail for outdoor activity, a long-standing bakery, an annual Irish Festival, and a museum focused on wildlife and conservation. Which of these defines your trip may also influence where you choose to stay. Someone choosing Clare primarily for the bike trail has a different focus from someone visiting specifically for the festival in March.

Active on the Pere Marquette Rail Trail

The Pere Marquette Rail Trail is 30 miles long, paved, and runs from downtown Clare to Midland. The City of Clare in Clare County is the starting point. The trail is suitable for biking, hiking, and inline skating. This gives you several ways to adapt the route to your preferred way of getting around: you can plan a biking trip, explore on foot, or bring inline skates.

A bakery and a taste of local life

Cops and Doughnuts is a bakery in Clare, Michigan, that has been in continuous operation since 1896. It offers handmade sweets. The bakery’s long history and handcrafted offerings give it a special place among local destinations: it offers a specific culinary connection alongside a tradition that has lasted for more than a century.

Irish Festival in March

The annual Irish Festival takes place in the City of Clare in March and lasts four days. The program includes parades, bed races, a children’s run, an arts and crafts show, and musical performances. This mix gives the festival several distinct facets: it includes parades, athletic competitions, an activity for children, arts and crafts, and music.

Its origins go back more than 50 years, when community members wanted to celebrate Clare’s Irish heritage and create an event that would endure for generations. Today’s annual event carries forward a goal that has deep roots in the community. Unlike the Rail Trail, the Irish Festival offers a cultural focus: it celebrates the community’s Irish heritage, while the trail is for outdoor activity. These are two different travel interests that may both factor into your choice of where to stay.

Wildlife and conservation at the Webber Museum

The Webber Museum is located in Clare, Michigan, and focuses on wildlife education and conservation. Those interested in these topics will find a different focus here than in active outings on the Rail Trail or the town’s culinary and cultural highlights. The museum adds nature education and conservation to the range of topics that make Clare an interesting place to visit.

For the broader travel overview: Clare County.