2025 is Grand Rapids' third year of Christkindl Markt.  I'd thought about going last year, but I wasn't free on the days it was open, so this was my first visit.  The Detroit News wrote about the growth of Christmas markets in Michigan.

The Grand Rapids market is much more lively than Holland's Kerstmarkt, with many more booths and many more people.

Seasonal drinks seemed to be the best-seller on a Saturday afternoon when I visited.  A good percentage of the crowd was either drinking from souvenir mugs or waiting in line to buy some.

There were a good variety of food choices... sausages, melted Raclette cheese on bread, pirogi, schnitzel on a stick, Bosnian pastries, and churros.

 

Other huts offered Christmas ornaments, cutting boards, and assorted gifts.

The weather was overcast and cool when I visited, but not really cold.  The middle aisle of the market is a covered drinking hall, for those looking to escape the weather.  The Christkindl Markt is connected to the Grand Rapids Downtown Market, which offered more food and drinks inside its heated building, as well as restrooms.

 

Christkindl Markt
435 Ionia Ave. SW
Grand Rapids, MI
49503 

Pilgrim Haven Natural Area

After a few enjoyable hours in South Haven (including a good lunch at Three Blondes Brewing and observing the Army Corps of Engineers' channel-dredging/ beach nourishment project at South Beach) I headed out of town to explore a beach that I had never visited.

Pilgrim Haven is a Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy preserve about 5 miles south of South Haven, near Van Buren State Park.

The parking lot on 18th Avenue is well-marked and has restrooms and signs explaining the history of the preserve.  A sidewalk leads directly to Lake Michigan.  The ramp to the beach is paved and wheelchair accessible.  The beach itself is less wheel friendly, consisting of a mix of sand, pebbles, and rock cobble.

 

While there were a few people sunbathing, most people were beachcombing for interesting rocks.  The Conservancy does allow visitors to collect a small number of rocks for personal use and the preserve frequently appears on lists of places to rock hunt. 

I didn't find much-- just a few colorful granite pebbles-- but I didn't really know what to look for. Michigan Rockhounds report that commonly found treasures at Pilgrim Haven include lightning stone, quartz, unakite, horn coral, crinoid calyx, and chert along with some rare finds that are more common in Northern Michigan.   (Southwestern Michigan Tourist Council has a list of shoreline rocks and fossils  and Owlcation has two articles: identifying rocks of Lake Michigan and beach stone identification. MLive has an article with photos on Collectible rocks of Southwest Lake Michigan beaches.)

Before becoming a preserve, Pilgrim Haven had been a youth camp for decades.  The chimney from the camp's dining hall has been preserved in an open lawn.  (Here's a post from a former camper revisiting Pilgrim Haven.) 

A short system of grassy trails runs through the woods of the 27 acre preserve, with a bridge over Dyckman Creek.

I'd been vaguely aware of Pilgrim Haven as a supporter of the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy, but I didn't realize it so was so close to South Haven.  Now that I'm familiar with it, I expect it will become a regular addition to my Lake Michigan visits.

Pilgrim Haven Natural Area
18th Avenue
South Haven Charter Township, MI 49090

[free admission]

West Side County Park

 

 

Holiday weekends have been really crowded at Lake Michigan.  Last summer, we weren't able to visit our favorite beaches a couple of times since all the parking spots and the overflow parking were full.  On Sunday, of the Fourth of July weekend, we were in Douglas, MI and didn't want to face the congestion at Saugatuck Dunes State Park or Oval Beach, so we drove south to see what we could find.

Driving about 5 miles brought us to West Side County Park, where we easily found a parking space.  The park had a big picnic area with two pavilions and a lot of picnic tables, occupied by several groups.  There was a grassy play area and a fenced playground.

We walked the length of the park to a nice beach overlook, with benches and a small gazebo.  Access to the beach was fenced off and a small sign said to use the north stairs.

We walked the width of the park through the woods and found a steep stairway down to the beach.  A visitor in the parking lot said she had counted 80 steps initially, but only 77 after drinking a few White Claws.

The beach wasn't huge, but it was a nice stretch of sand with a little bit of shade at the edge of the dune.  The sand changed to pebbles at the waterline, making walking less comfortable.  There were plenty of people of all ages using the beach on what I imagine was one of its busiest days of the season.

This was a new beach for me and a nice option when everything else was likely to be full.   It looks like the park had a wheelchair accessible ramp to the beach at one point, but we didn't see any traces of it.  A cooler would be difficult to manage on the current stairs and a wheelchair would be impossible.

 

West Side County Park
2152 Lakeshore Dr,
Fennville, MI 49408

free

Sunset Lake

Sunset Lake is about 15 miles south of Kalamazoo in the Village of Vicksburg.  It's a long narrow lake with access at Sunset Lake Park.  It's a short carry from the street to the little beach in the park.

Lakeside homes line the shore near the park.  Paddling north, the docks and houses give way to cattails and trees.  The Vicksburg Recreation Area preserves a section of waterfront on the east.

Sunset Lake had plenty of seaweed, algae, and duckweed.  I'd recommend visiting early or late in the season when the vegetation is lighter.  We did watch an airboat spraying copper sulfate to control the algae, so it may clear somewhat as the chemicals work.

Sunset Lake connects to Gourdneck Creek which eventually leads to Gourdneck Lake.  We didn't explore the creek this afternoon.

Sunset Lake Park
339 Page St
Vicksburg, MI 49097

 

 

 

Holland's Kerstmarkt

I'd been interested in visiting the Kerstmarkt in Holland, Michigan for several years and this season I finally made it on the last day it was open.  The Kerstmarkt is the Dutch version of the outdoor Christmas markets that are popular throughout Europe.

Holland's market featured over a dozen booths selling crafts, plus a few offering food and drinks, and warming hut.

 

On Saturday's the Holland Farmer's Market sells fresh produce, baked goods, and chocolates which doubles the size of the market.

It also offered a dogsled demo on the day I visited.

The Kerstmarkt was a pleasant, low-key experience.  It was no where near the size of Chicago's Christkindlmarket but it did make a list of the Top 50 Christmas Markets worldwide.  On its own, I'm not sure it justifies the drive from Kalamazoo but it does make a good excuse to visit downtown Holland during December.

The Kerstmarkt right at the edge of Holland's 8th Street shopping district, which is West Michigan's best "Main Street." My favorite place for lunch in Holland, New Holland Brewing, is just a few blocks from the market. Along the way, The Outpost is great shop for camping, SUPs, and outdoor clothing.  8th Street also has branches of regional favorites like Gazelle Sports and Kilwins chocolates and a newly opened Hopcat.

Holland Kerstmarkt
8th Street Market Place
150 W. 8th Street
Holland, Michigan

Laketown Beach

I can't remember when I last found a "new" beach in Southwest Michigan.  It's been easy to fall back on a favorite park: Saugatuck Dunes, Warren Dunes, or Grand Mere and not explore new places.  A couple of weekends ago I stumbled across Laketown Beach Park, a few miles north of Saugatuck Dunes. 

Laketown Beach is a quirky little park featuring some impressive stairs.  The park starts with a small parking lot where 142nd Avenue dead-ends at the dunes.  A few signs, a porta-potty, and some stairs.  And then some more stairs.  Then a few more. 

From the top, there's a nice view of Lake Michigan and a long flight of stairs leading to the beach and water.  The Awesome Mitten blog claims the round-trip takes nearly 500 steps.

The beach frontage on the Lake is fairly small.  Big signs mark private land on either side of this township park.  There was plenty of room for a picnic in early October, but I imagine it could fill up in mid-summer.

While you can't lay out a blanket on the private beaches, Michigan law allows people to walk along the lakefront, whether the land is privately or publicly owned. So, the private beach signs don't say, "Keep Out," they say, "Keep Walking."

I enjoyed a long walk along the lake, turning back near Saugatuck Dunes State Park. 

I didn't walk north from the park, but Holland's "Big Red" lighthouse was visible in the distance.  It's about 3 miles away, so it could be an ambitious beach walk.

Laketown Beach Park

6710 142nd Ave.

Holland, MI 49423

free

Aman Park

Until today, I'd never visited Aman Park, despite seeing it recommended in several guidebooks (including Best Easy Day Hikes Grand Rapids, Natural Michigan, and Hiking Michigan.)  The park is about an hour north of Kalamazoo and offers several trails of about a mile each.

As I drove through suburban sprawl west of Grand Rapids, the location didn't seem that promising, but the fast food and shopping plazas gave way to farms and camps shortly before the the park entrance.  The park shares an entrance with Indian Trails Youth Camp.

The park isn't huge, but Sand Creek gives it real character.  The creek has carved some nice hills and the park's trails take advantage of the change in topography.  The trails I took were clearly marked and seemed well-maintained.  There wasn't really enough snow for good x-country skiing but someone had been out early and left some tracks.  I left my skis at home and enjoyed a nice winter walk.

I'm not sure the park is enough of a destination to make the drive from Kalamazoo, but it would combine nicely with a visit to other attractions in Grand Rapids.  I certainly plan to return.  It's supposed to be great for Spring Wildflowers.

The park is about 6 miles west of downtown Grand Rapids on M-45.  (Grand Valley State University is a couple of miles further west on the same road.)

Aman Park
1895 Lake Michigan Dr NW
Grand Rapids, MI 49534
(address is approximate.)
Free

Manistee River Trail

  

Last weekend, we hiked the Manistee River Trail  in the Manistee National Forest.  It's about a 3 hour drive from Kalamazoo (160 miles north).  There are several access points to the trail, and we started at Red Bridge and hiked north to the trailhead at the Seaton Creek campground.  The trail runs for just over 10 miles along the Manistee River.

Despite the cool temperatures, Saturday was a popular day on the trail and we met many groups of hikers, about evenly split between backpackers and day hikers.  Several people were backpacking with their dogs-- often equipped with their own doggy-sized backpacks.  We passed several campsites full of tents, tarps, or hammocks.  Down below, we saw the occasional group of kayakers and canoeists enjoying the river.

The leaves were just starting to change, so we were periodically rewarded with a burst of bright autumn color.

While most of the trees were still green, mushrooms provided an alternative source of color.  We passed hundreds and hundreds of mushrooms and assorted fungi-- red, white, black, yellow, brown, orange, grey, and gold-- ranging from the size of pencil eraser to plate-sized. 

The trail climbed from the river's edge to high banks overlooking the water and back, so there was a good amount of uphill and downhill walking.  The trail crossed a number bridges over streams that feed the Manistee.  These streams provided water sources (filtering/purification recommended) for hikers.  More developed water supplies were available at the Seaton Creek campground and Red Bridge.  (Although both pumps may be closed seasonally.)  A few of the creeks featured small waterfalls.

The Manistee River trail connects to the North Country Trail via a long wooden suspension bridge.  The two trails combine to form a 23 mile loop, which makes for a popular weekend backpacking experience.  We didn't hike the North Country Trail this weekend, but my stepson and his wife backpacked the whole loop last summer.  They reported that the NCT side has much less water and is mostly in the woods, without views of the river.  In their opinion, the Manistee River Trail was the prettier and more interesting option.

We camped in the Seaton Creek campground the night before and the night after our hike.  It's a Forest Service facility operated by a concessionaire, American Land & Leisure.  The campground was very nicely maintained with clean campsites and outhouses.  We bought a bundle of firewood from the pleasant camp host.  Each of the 17 sites was roomy and well-separated from neighboring sites.  About halfway around the loop, a picnic area with a set of steep stairs gives access to Seaton Creek.  Trailhead parking is also available at the campground (for a fee.)

The USFS website for the campground was out-of-date; it was inaccurate about fees (which are actually charged whenever the campground is open, not just in the summer months) and opening/closing dates.  (Last weekend was the end of the season and the campground will remain locked until Spring.)  The Recreation.gov website for the campground was somewhat more accurate but harder to navigate.  We ended up asking the campground host.  Campsites were $16 per night.

Directions:  Access to the trail is on well-maintained dirt roads off M-37 (south of Mesick.)  It was easy to follow the signs to the Seaton Creek campground.  The normal route to Red Bridge was blocked due to road construction, but the detour was well-marked.

Recreation.gov offers these directions to Seaton Creek: 

GPS Info. (Latitude, Longitude):
44.35778, -85.80917
44°21'28"N, 85°48'33"W

From the north: Follow M-37 south 6 miles from Mesick. Turn right on 26 Road (near Yuma) for 1.7 miles, then right on O'Rourke Drive for 1.3 miles, then right on Forest Road 5993 for 0.4 mile to the site.

From the south: Take M-37 north 9 miles from its intersection with M-55. Turn left on 26 Road for 1.7 miles, then right on O'Rourke Drive for 1.3 miles, then right on Forest Road 5993 for 0.4 miles to the site.

Google Maps uses different names for some of the smaller roads but accurately guided us in.  The street signs posted on those small dirt roads were closer to Google Maps' names, but still not 100% consistent.  The large brown recreation signs pointing to the campground were very clear.

More Information:
Backpacker.com Michigan's Manistee River Trail

Manistee County: map links and Hiking the Loop 

Michigan Trail Maps Manistee River Trail and North Country Trail (to order a paper map)

Ski Pigeon Creek

I first read about Pigeon Creek Park in the guidebook Michigan Winter Trails but I didn't have a chance to ski it until yesterday.  Pigeon Creek is an Ottawa County park between Holland, MI and Grand Haven, about an hour's drive northwest of Kalamazoo.  The park offers over 10 miles of ski trails.  All the trails are groomed for traditional, diagonal-stride skiing and some trails are also groomed for skate-skiing.  About three miles of trail are lit for night skiing.  The park features a separate snowshoe trail and a lighted sled hill near the lodge.

Pigeon Creek is close enough to Lake Michigan to get lake effect snow, much like Love Creek County Park to the south, so it's worth checking when Kalamazoo's snow is insufficient.  The county regularly updates trail conditions on their Winter Sports Hot Line: (616) 738-9531.  Yesterday, their snow seemed just as deep as Kalamazoo's.

The trails are well-marked and there are many inter-connections making it easy to create loops of varying distances.  I skied for about an hour which certainly didn't exhaust all of the options.  The loops I took were very beginner friendly, with no steep hills or difficult sections.  There are steeper, more challenging, sections and these are well-marked.  Easier alternative routes are always available.
The county provides an online trail map (pdf).  Physical maps were posted at most interesections, making orientation simple.

The park's lodge is open weekday evenings and all day on weekends.  They have ski rentals available during those times and a concession sells snacks, like hot dogs, chili, and hot chocolate.  I didn't have a chance to try it since I visited in the morning.

There were only a handful of people in the park on a snowy Tuesday.  I imagine it's more popular on weekends and evenings.

Pigeon Creek is named for the now extinct Passenger Pigeon that used to flock to the area.  The trails pass through mature maple-beech forest, hemlocks, and planted pines.

directions: From US 31, north of Holland, take Stanton Road east three miles to the park entrance.

Pigeon Creek Park 
12524 Stanton Street
West Olive, MI 49460

Free

Kalamazoo recreation map

View Larger Map

Here's a map showing some places to enjoy nature near Kalamazoo.  I made the map using ArcGIS Online as an assignment for a Coursera MOOC.  Clicking the icons gives a little more information about the location and sometimes a photo and link to a relevant blogpost.

Wildflowers at Warren Dunes

Like most people, I think of Warren Dunes State Park as a summer destination: swimming at the big beaches (with big parking lots), climbing Tower Hill to see Chicago across Lake Michigan, picnicking, or camping.  So it had been a few years since I'd visited during the Spring wildflower season.  On Thursday, I went to three parks in the southwest corner of the state: Grand Mere, Warren Dunes, and Warren Woods.  The three are only a few miles apart and each offered a different glimpse into Michigan's Spring.

Warren Dunes was at peak wildflower time.  I ate lunch in the picnic area, surrounded by hundreds of blooming Trillium.  The trillium continued all along the trail to the campground and on the slopes of the wooded back dunes.  As the trail turned uphill, other wildflowers came into sight: both Dicentra species (Dutchman's Breeches and Squirrel Corn), Rue Anemone, Toothwort, Violets, and a lone Jack-in-the-Pulpit.  Two other plants, with less conspicuous blooms also caught my eye: Blue Cohosh with its tiny green flowers and the hairy, ground-level flowers of Wild Ginger.

Other ephemerals, like Hepatica and Bloodroot, had already bloomed and their leaves were gathering energy before the tree canopy shaded them for the summer.

This beach will be full of people in a couple of months.

Warren Dunes State Park
12032 Red Arrow Hwy 
Lake Charter Township, MI 49125

State park pass or entry fee required.

Muskegon Winter Sports Complex

The Muskegon Winter Sport Complex is in Muskegon State Park, a drive of about an hour and a half from Kalamazoo.  We visited last weekend since their snow conditions report said the ski trails were in great condition.  The Complex offers over 9 miles of groomed trails in its system of five loops.  The trails are groomed for both skate-skiing and classic two-track skiing.  Several of the trails are lit for night skiing.  Most of the trails are very accessible for beginning skiers.

We skied for about an hour on an intermediate length loop.  The melt and freeze cycle had made Kalamazoo un-skiable, but Muskegon's groomed tracks were fine.  The classic tracks were a little icy, since there hadn't been any recent snow, but not too slippery to be enjoyable.  The wide section, groomed for skate-skiing, had a very good surface.

Besides the ski trails, they offer an ice skating trail through the woods and multiple ice rinks.  The skating attractions were very popular on a sunny Sunday.  A lodge offers skate and ski rentals, hot chocolate, cookies and other snacks, and a warming fire.  It's also where you purchase ski and skate passes.

Muskegon's Winter Sports Complex is probably best known for its luge track, one of three places to luge in the United States.  We didn't try the fast little sleds that day, although I did spend an afternoon learning to luge on the beginners track, nearly twenty years ago.

Muskegon Winter Sports Complex
462 Scenic Drive
N. Muskegon, MI  49445

Ski pass $7
Skate pass $5
luge $40 
parking: State Park passport or fee