Grand Haven State Park

Grand Haven State Park is 48 acres and almost all of it is sand. There is no wooded buffer, no bluff, no separation between the campground and the water — the sites sit on the beach itself, which is either the best thing about the place or the worst depending on how you feel about wind-driven sand at 2 a.m.

It sits at the mouth of the Grand River in Ottawa County, on the Lake Michigan side of Grand Haven. The park’s west edge is the lake. Its north edge is the channel, and that channel is live: the Coast Guard station is here, charter boats run out at dawn, and the pier walk puts you closer to moving vessels than most public shoreline does.

The pier

The south pier runs roughly half a mile out from the beach with the elevated steel catwalk beside it — painted the same red as the pierhead light at the end. The catwalk was built so keepers could reach the light when waves were breaking over the pier deck. It is a Grand Haven landmark and it is maintained by a local volunteer group.

Walking the pier is the classic thing to do here, at sunset, and on a calm evening it is exactly as good as it sounds.

On a windy day it is a different proposition. Waves break over the concrete, the surface goes slick, and people get swept off. It happens most summers somewhere on Lake Michigan. When water is coming over the deck, do not walk out.

Rip currents — say it plainly

Lake Michigan’s east shore drowns swimmers every summer, and the mechanism is usually structural. Water pushed onshore by a westerly wind has to go back out, and a pier or breakwall gives it a channel. The result is a fast, narrow current running along the structure straight out into the lake. It does not pull you under. It pulls you away from shore faster than you can swim against it.

Two rules cover most of it:

Do not swim next to the pier. The structural rip sets up right along it. Stay well down the beach.

If you are caught, do not fight it out. Swim parallel to shore until you are out of the current, then angle in. Yelling and waving costs you nothing and gets attention.

Grand Haven flies the standard flag system — green, yellow, red, and double red for closed water. Red means the lifeguards, when present, are telling you the lake is doing this today. Believe them. There are stretches of season with no lifeguard on duty at all.

Water temperature runs from the 40s in May to the low 70s in a good August, and a sustained offshore wind can cause upwelling that drops it 15 to 20 degrees overnight.

When to go

July and August for swimming. June for empty sand and cold water. September and October for the best light and the freighter traffic without the crowds — this is one of the better places on the lake to watch weather come in off open water.

Before you turn up

A Michigan Recreation Passport is required for entry; nonresidents pay a day or annual rate at the gate. The lot fills on hot weekends by late morning, and once it is full the park closes the gate until spaces open.

Campground sites are reserved through the state system and the summer weekends book out months ahead. There is no shade. Bring your own.

The Grand River channel and the piers hold fish. Salmon and steelhead stage off the mouth in late summer and fall, and pier anglers work them with spoons and skein. Perch move through the channel in the cooler months. Michigan DNR sets seasons and limits, and they change annually — check before you keep anything.