Ludington State Park is reopening next week after nine months of renovations.
Park Manager Jim Gallie said renovations focused on repaving and expanding some of the day use parking lots.
He said they’ve also added more trails and bike paths to make it possible to navigate the whole park without walking or biking on roads with cars.
“We're kind of tying everything together,” Gallie said.
The campground is normally open year-round but was closed this past fall and winter, after Labor Day.
In the regular winter seasons, Gallie said, “we even have a hammock group that comes out and does what they call a ‘winter hang.' We'll get 30 or 40 hammock campers that come stay here in the winter.”
Ludington State Park attracts more campers than any parks in Michigan’s state system.
It has seven miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, dunes, an inland lake and campgrounds that sometimes sell out within minutes.
The early opening means campers can race for spots that haven’t been grabbed yet for that last week of June. Those reservations go live at 8 a.m. on June 24.
Gallie said he’s already heard from people excited to return.
“There's so many people who realize that we needed to make those improvements, but they just missed the park,” he said.
The park's renovation was funded through the 2022 Building Michigan Together Plan, which used pandemic relief money — from the American Rescue Plan Act — to fund infrastructure, including the single largest investment in Michigan's state and local parks.
