Heading South

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We had wanted to stop at Ludington State Park as head south along Lake Michigan. Apparently it is one of the best parks in Michigan and even though it is after Labor Day, we could not get a site for more than 2 days so we decided to head a bit further south along US-31 and stop near Ferrysburg at Hoffmaster State Park. It is also right on Lake Michigan and as we have discovered with most of these parks along the coast, it is composed of lots of sand dunes.

We had made reservations online so when we pulled in at 3 PM and nobody was manning the booth, we called the number listed and got registered. Since rain was expected, we decided to head into town and find a library. As we came back, just after sunset, there was a lot of lightning over the lake heading our way.  As luck would have it, now somebody WAS at the booth so we had to deal with the paperwork for registration. That few minute delay prevented us from making it back to our site before the deluge struck. It was coming down so fast that it was tough to follow the roads back to our rig. As we were prepping dinner, there was a knock at the door telling us to go to the rest rooms if it started to sound like a freight train, or got eerily quite. Fortunately we had nothing more than heavy rains. Our site was not bad, but the next morning showed many of the camp sites under quite a bit of water.

The Morning After Heavy Rains

Dramatic Sunset

There were no "must see" sights from this location but in the 6 days here, we found several interesting spots to visit. Just a couple miles north near Norton Shores was Lake Harbor Park. There were many trails in the park with boardwalks over the dunes overlooking Lake Michigan. But once you got back into the woods, you felt like you were in a completely different place. We had to chuckle at the sign they had posted as you start on the trails. They couldn't keep it simple like "Please pick up after your pet." It felt like some lawyer was trying to show off with their vocabulary.

Clean Up After Your Pet

Some Trails Along Lake Michigan

Colorful Fungis

From Top of Dune Overlooking Parking Lot

We found two mountain biking areas that were fun, but not nearly as challenging as the one in Traverse City.  Pigeon Creek Park had some nice wider trails and was reasonably flat. Plus there were quite a few geocaches there. Another park a bit further south was Riley Trails Park. This one was mostly single track trail but there were so many of them and lots of geocaches to find, that we sometimes felt like were were headed the wrong way. There was one well done cache at Pigeon Creek that was composed of a loop of PVC with the matchstick container at the bottom. To retrieve the log, you needed to use your lung power to shoot it out.

Pigeon Creek Lodge

Chris Prepares

Orange Container Flying Out

We also spent the better part of an afternoon walking the streets of Holland In search of various statues scattered about the downtown area. We also walked the tiny campus of Hope College while we were there.

One of the Statues

Chris Sits Down with Ben

Beautiful Building on Hope College Campus

Just west of downtown Holland is Holland State Park. It borders both Lake Michigan and Lake Makatawa. The day we were there, it was breezy and the Lake was very choppy but many people were heading thru the channel either going to or coming from Lake Michigan. The lighthouse on the southern shore of the channel is called Big Red for good reason. A couple guys were out with some impressive "kites" that made the ones the kids were flying look exceptionally small.

The View From Boardwalk on Dune Above Channel

Small Tug(?) Boat

Looking at Macatawa Bay Marina

Lighthouse "Big Red"

Big House Overlooking Channel

Kite Over Beach

View of Holland Beach from Pier

Hoffmaster State Park has two areas - the campground and the day use area. Early in our visit we had walked the mile from the campground beach to the day use beach. Being a weekday, not too many people were out plus the water was still quite rough from the front that passed through.

Little Black Creek Reaches the Lake

View from Atop a Dune

Walking Across a Sandbar

Driftwood and Waves

The Visitor Center at Hoffmaster is only about a mile down the road between the two of them but we hadn't checked out the hiking trails in the other area until our last day. Of course we timed it so that we were there the one day the visitor's center was closed! But we enjoyed exploring the trails and various boardwalks.

View From Overlook

I got out several nights to check out the sunset over Lake Michigan.  There is a nice campers beach and most evenings, people showed up for the sunsets. One night I went out to do some night sky photography. In theory the beach is closed at 10 PM but there wasn't anybody there so I stayed out past that.  Around 10:45, I saw flashlights coming my way and realized it was three guys. At first I was concerned they were going to take my gear, but it was a park ranger telling me I wasn't supposed to be there. Once he saw what I was doing and wasn't out causing trouble, he told me to finish up and try to be out in twenty minutes.

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Our next stop is Cincinnati with a stop near the halfway point in Kokomo Indiana. As we approached the highway in heading out of Kokomo, we could see right where a tornado had rolled through just a few weeks ago. One building destroyed and several others with roof damage plus numerous trees that had been snapped.

As we headed out and started to Cincinnati, it seemed like our "vacation" was over. It's still hard to believe this is our life now. It will be good to see family at the wedding before we head out to who knows where.