Overview
Narrow Gauge Way is a 13.5 acre nature area located on the northeast side of Ann Arbor, just south of the corner of Green Road and Glazier Way. View the Ann Arbor Parks and Nature Areas map for location context.
Narrow Gauge Way Nature Area is one of a number of city park properties with no trails or amenities. These natural areas represent a unique recreation and conservation feature of the city’s park system. In these relatively few spaces across the city, off-trail exploration is encouraged– a rare opportunity to meander through a wild space in our urban context. Visitors are also invited to reflect on the conservation value and biodiversity of these spaces, where the Parks & Recreation’s Natural Area Preservation staff and volunteers work to steward, restore and inventory the natural communities throughout the city’s parks.
The diverse trees located throughout the area provide habitat for terrestrial wildlife including rabbits, deer, and squirrels. Just some of the many native plant species found here include oak, hickory, maple, sycamore, sassafras, basswood, and black walnut trees as well as ragwort, jack-in-the-pulpit, richweed, Christmas fern, and lopseed. The creek that flows through Narrow Gauge Way is a small branch of Millers Creek, which is the steepest tributary to the Huron River in all of Ann Arbor!