Elmwood Beach

What catches most people off guard is that this stretch of Gun Lake real estate sits on some of the clearest, sandiest bottom you'll find—the kind of water where you can actually see what's underneath, and sunsets paint the whole western sky. Homes here run deep on lakefront, with properties boasting anywhere from 50 feet to well over 200 feet of private beach, and a lot of them face onto Baird's Cove, which tends to stay calmer even when the rest of the lake kicks up. You've got boating, fishing, and docks right off the back, plus the sandy floor means nobody's wading through muck. A grocery run is about a 9-minute walk, and if you're heading to Gerald R. Ford airport, you're looking at just over 40 minutes—close enough that weekend trips don't feel like a production. Duck Lake sits less than a mile away if you want a different kind of water day, and the whole area has that quiet, spread-out feel where neighbors aren't stacked on top of each other.