Michigan's most heavily camped state park is asking visitors to weigh in on what comes next. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is seeking public input on a long-range management plan for Ludington State Park, the 5,300-acre expanse of dune, forest and shoreline in Hamlin Township that draws more campsite-night reservations than any other park in the state system.
The push comes as the park wraps up years of construction funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, according to MLive.com, which reported that $2.6 million in ARPA funding went toward upgraded pedestrian walkways, improved parking areas and newly repaved roads at the park. Ludington State Park's last long-range plan was completed in 2016, and the park has since met many of its 10-year action goals, the outlet reported. The Michigan DNR's general management planning process requires an eight-month public and stakeholder input window to outline 10- to 20-year action goals that balance resource preservation with recreation needs, according to a State of Michigan announcement.
Debbie Jensen said many exciting improvements have occurred at Ludington State Park since 2016, and that public input will guide the park's management over the next 10 years, per the same MLive.com report. The park, situated between Lake Michigan and Hamlin Lake at 8800 M-116, includes seven miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, 21 miles of marked trails and hundreds of campsites. It hosts over 500,000 day-use visitors annually, the highest volume of any park in Michigan's system, a metric that helps explain why its long-range planning carries so much weight for regional tourism.
Skyline Trail Rebuild Aims to Restore Natural Dune Movement
Among the park's most visible features is the Skyline Trail, a half-mile-long scenic boardwalk that has been a treasured feature for more than 40 years, sitting roughly 100 feet above the park's southern dune ridge. Originally built in 1980, the trail will undergo a full rebuild from late 2026 to mid-2027 at a cost the state park release places at $3.5 million to $3.65 million, with MLive.com's report citing the $3.65 million figure. The project was awarded to contractor Mimh Enterprises of Hamilton, Michigan, and will elevate most of the boardwalk a few feet higher to restore natural sand movement across the fragile dunes, according to the same state release.
The rebuild is being financed in part through grassroots fundraising. The non-profit Friends of Ludington State Park, founded in 1989 to support park maintenance and education, committed to raising $350,000 in private donations — 10 percent of the total project cost — alongside a $3.3 million grant from the Michigan State Parks Endowment Fund. Upcoming park projects are described as fully funded, per the state park announcement.
Lighthouse Restoration and Amphitheater Upgrade Also Planned
The historic 1867 Big Sable Point Lighthouse, reachable by a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail within the park, will receive a $450,000 restoration project. Its grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, gift shop, picnic tables, pathways, and interpretive signage, and the tower is open for climbing during summer and fall; buses take visitors to the lighthouse on select summer days, MLive.com reported. The lighthouse opened for the 2026 season and is operated under a DNR agreement by Lakeshore Keepers, a non-profit founded by local residents in 1987 to coordinate volunteer keepers who live on site during the summer, according to Lakeshore Keepers. The federal government transferred ownership of the lighthouse to the Michigan DNR in 2002, per the same organization.
Elsewhere in the park, the amphitheater will receive a $100,000 renovation, MLive.com reported. The Big Sable River, which stretches one mile between Lake Michigan and Hamlin Lake, is used for fishing, paddling, and tubing, adding another recreational draw within the park's boundaries.
Recent Closure Set the Stage for Today's Upgrades
The current planning push follows a 10-month closure of the park from September 3, 2024, to July 1, 2025, that allowed heavy equipment to realign the main entrance booth, repave primary roads, and expand parking lots at Hamlin Lake and the Lake Michigan Beach House, as Hoodline previously reported. During that construction, a three-mile stretch of beach south of the Big Sable River remained accessible via roadside parking along southbound M-116. That work was part of a statewide $250 million American Rescue Plan Act allocation under Governor Gretchen Whitmer's Building Michigan Together Plan, enacted to address a $300 million backlog in state park repairs, according to Interlochen Public Radio.
Michigan operates 103 state parks and recreation areas spanning 360,000 acres, offering more than 13,750 campsites and drawing roughly 35 million visitors per year, with statewide visitation expanding by about 30 percent starting in 2020. Ludington State Park is bordered to the north by the Huron-Manistee National Forest, which adds 4.5 miles of contiguous public shoreline to the park's own 7 miles, creating an 11.5-mile block of protected Great Lakes coast and a continuous coastal dune system.
Visitor safety remains part of the park's management challenge, too. A Michigan DNR water safety advisory reported by Hoodline in July noted that wind-driven upwelling along Lake Michigan at Ludington State Park can abruptly drop near-shore water temperatures into the 50s within hours, creating cold-shock risks for swimmers, as Hoodline detailed in its report on the sudden temperature swings hitting Ludington and Holland beaches.
The public survey on the park's future management is available through October 4.
