Hiking the Ludington Statepark

Ludington Statepark: Day2

Our day 2 at the park was reserved for hiking the park. There are many trails which you can explore among which we selected the Light house trail,Skyline trail and Big sable river trail. Ludington statepark is indeed the best state park of MI including all the activities you can possibly do. You can see so many people parked beside the road towards Lake Michigan. If you park your car and walk to the beach it will feel like its your own private beach!

We started our day with Hiking the skyline trail. The whole trail is stairs with changing elevation. So I think you have to be physically fit to complete the whole trail.  The trail is extremely beautiful with shades from the trees surrounding the trail. It was pleasant and breezy and you can see the Lake of MI from several points along the trail. Some kind of mushroom we spotted:

A view of lake MI from the trail.

Fully shaded trail with lots of trees surrounding you!

Around half way through we reached a steep sand dune. The trail opens to the sand dune indicating you can run down the dune and we decided to do so. We started from the top and ran to the very bottom. Running down was so easy and so much fun. 

At the bottom we found this kinda valley of flowers.

 

We spent some time at the bottom and when it was finally time to climb up, the dune in front of seemed laughing just the way we laughed when we ran down.

The climb up was not easy at all. We walked zig zag and our legs hurt. We realized it was not shaded anymore and was hot!. We took it slow and reached back on the trail and rested on the stairs catching breath.

After a while we resumed the walk. We soon spotted a deer in the woods.

We completed the trail in like one hour. It was a very pleasant experience and we connected our hike to the sable river trail. 

We walked beside the river and saw people river floating. The trail take you to the dam at Hamlin lake. We walked upto the dam and watched the lake and the river.

After the river trail we decided to hike the light house trail. This was known as one of the difficult trail in the park because of the 1.8 miles one way length, and coz of the fact that the trail goes through the dunes. So basically no shade, and hot and it will make you feel like the trail is even longer.

While hiking this we saw many ponds along the sides of the trail. Its amusing to see the ponds in middle of the dessert.Some had even lily pads in them. The water in the pond had many colors in them.

Some encouraging things along the way.

After almost 2 miles of tiring hike we spotted the light house in distance. Still seems far, but we are getting nearer.

And here it is! The big sable light house.

 

We sat beside lake MI enjoying the cool breeze and the view of the light house. we had our snacks and rested at the beach. 

And it was time to hike back. While returning we decided to alter our route and see historic ship wreck. We took dune trail, but somehow we couldnt spot the ship wreck. No idea what that was about. 

But anyways the trail hit the lake MI beach and we decided to continue the trail along the beach. It was almost half mile more to reach back the park entrance and we did it by the beach.

 

We completed the trail by 4:30 . Finally it was time for driving back home. 

Bbye Ludington!