Grand Haven State Park ~ 1/25/22

There is some serious ice at the pier right now and we had to see it 😊

Since last year, the town has installed a gate on the pier to prevent people from walking on it in dangerous conditions so we didn't get far (unlike these folks 😉).

We then drove around to the other side of the channel, slipped on some more ice, and called it a day, a beautiful winter day.

Click for last year's visit when we could get on the pier.

 

Grand Haven and a historic ship ~ 4/21/18

We drove to Grand Haven this afternoon for no specific reason other than to see the pier and the lake. When we got to town we spotted a huge ship in the channel and quickly got out to check it out.

It was slowly moving towards Lake Michigan, being pulled through the channel.

Before it disappeared into Lake Michigan, we drove down to the pier to watch the rest of its journey through the channel.

Zooming in for a few last photos, I got some complete with bird ~ perfect :-)

The ship straightened out in the lake and headed North.

Off she went. For more information on the historic St Marys Challenger (built in 1906 and converted into a barge in 2013), here's an article. And here's a one minute video from today.

The other interesting boat in the above photo is a dredge. It was pumping sand from that side of the channel to this side.

Reclaiming beach.

The dredge looked to me like a bunch of people had tied their boats together for a party.

The pier has a new look with some major repairs completed this year.

No repairs have been made between the lighthouses so that's still rough.

At the end of the pier we found a resting fisherman, a drone, and the iconic lighthouse. Next time we visit, we hope it's above 50 degrees :-)

 
 

Grand Haven State Park ~ 3/22/16

It was about 51 degrees at home and for a lunch break, we drove out to Grand Haven to see what the lake was doing.

There were fairly large swells in the channel but on the other side of the pier, the waves were breaking. With the wind chill, the temperature fell back into the 30s.

This man on a rock kept inadvertently photobombing us while he was climbing up but we finally managed to get our picture on this very windy day.

 Here's a short video from today

And here is a wintery write-up from back in January 2015

Until next time Grand Haven!

 

 

Grand Haven ~ 11/30/14

Three feet of snow are gone and being a relatively mild but breezy, drizzly day we thought we take a drive to Grand Haven. It was pretty deserted except for a handful of people, a lone fisherman, and a bicyclist ~ riding on the very windy pier.

The pier was damp and the wind picked up as the temperature continued to drop the farther we walked out onto the pier. We considered ourselves warned.

This is about as far as we walked out. The wind was strong, at least 20 mph. Roy to me: You're not going to blow off the pier. Me to Roy: Thought everyone who was ever blown off the pier.

So we turned around. A view looking back showed some whitecaps and the requisite graffiti.

Although no people were on the beach, the shoreline was very busy with ducks and seagulls, who were obviously finding all good things.

Getting your ducks in a row.

Although we were bundled up, the bitter wind prevented us from walking much further towards town. In the car heading out of town, we pulled in at the popular summer place, Butch's Beach Burritos, which was closed for the season as always (open April-Sept).

But lo and behold, Spring Lake now has its own branch (opened in 2013 I believe). Located behind a gas station in a strip mall, the place doesn't have the same character as the original. But if you are craving one of the beach burritos off season (although not on the beach), stop in and get your taste of summer.