Powers Family: Ludington State Park

Leaving Hoffmaster we meandered up the coast of Lake Michigan. We had a relatively easy drive to Ludington State Park. The town of Ludington is an old town with lots of ties to the timber and shipping industries. They also mined sand from the dunes and it looks like there is still some kind of activity in the area of the dunes next to the park.

The park has three campgrounds and was fairly busy for this time of year. There is a lot of fishing here so many of the campers were fishermen. The first picture is of our campsite.

I mentioned earlier that there is a lot of fishing here. The marina’s in Ludington were full of charter boats as well as some pretty nice yachts. We went into town one night for dinner and enjoyed a good meal at an old Italian restaurant right down town. I believe the name of the restaurant was Luciano’s. I neglected to take my camera so I don’t have any photos of the downtown.

The other part of the fishing is the salmon which come to the river in the fall and swim upstream. They were just starting their journey when we were there. There were some fishermen in the mouth of the river where it enters Lake Michigan. It did not look like they were catching many but we did see a couple with fish. The biggest obstacle for the fish is about a mile upstream near our campground.

The fish cannot jump this dam and there is not a fish ladder for them. We saw a whole school of them right below the sign in the bottom of the picture. They were just maintaining their positions in the water. We did not get to see any of them trying to jump the dam. The young lady in the camp store said it was a bit too warm yet for them to really start their run.

The next day we went for a walk along the river and then up on what was termed “Ridgeline Trail”. It was definitely on a ridge. The views were great.

This as the view towards Ludington. You can just barely see the lighthouse in the distance on the end of the jetty. Maybe this one will show it better.