Pere Marquette Conservation Park- New Parts

I'll be doing a news article soon about the newest part of the Pere Marquette Conservation Park near Ludington. You may recall that I went to an official opening and event that showcased the township's proposals for the use of this land that used to be owned by Dow Chemical. (link at end)

Today, I visited the Community Access section which opened a year ago, but I've been slow to get there. This is a view I've never seen before although the setting is familiar. This is all part of the former Dow property that will eventually be developed with an impressive list of recreational opportunities.

This section is all on the north side of the river. Where Cathy and I have walked there a couple of times is on the south side. The only connection will be (probably) vehicular. There is no pedestrian walkway on Old 31, and there is no other bridge. (Although there are some pipes spanning the river that are still in place- seems like an opportunity to create a pedestrian bridge.) The whole purchase was 300 acres, and it covers a lot of riverfront on both banks. Ecosystem restoration is also on the agenda.

This Community Access site is on the north side of the river. One of the things they built was an accessible walkway with benches for accessible fishing, or just watching the river.

This is a view that is just interesting to me. It's looking east at one of the bridges over the river on Oceana Drive (Old 31).

So what does the new area have? There is a picnic pavilion, a fish-cleaning station, a nice bathroom (closed seasonally, but there is a porta-potty too), interpretive signs, lots of parking adequate for trailered boats, and the short walkway over the river edge. The plan calls for a connection to a Ludington area trail. That is not in place yet, but they just approved another round of funding, so perhaps that will happen next.

Anyway, I managed to walk around this area for about a half mile although there aren't established trails.

Then I went over to the School Forest and walked some more until bell choir. Managed to do about 3.2 miles all together. Put in a good solid morning of computer work and editing, even though it was one of those days when my morning headache did not give up. I finally took a pill around noon.

Miles hiked in 2025: 426.9

Pere Marquette Conservation Park, 0.5 miles. Ludington School Forest, 2.7 miles

See A Walk at the Conservation Park See Opening of PM Conservation Park