Scenic Ridge Trail - Muskegon State Park

The Scenic Ridge Loop at Muskegon State Park - May 26, 2014

Muskegon State Park has over 10(verify) miles of hiking trails. The Scenic Ridge Trail dose not have the sweeping views like the Dune Ridge Trail, but it still an interesting hike worth checking out.. Except for right at the start the trail is well marked and easy to follow. The loop that we hiked folllowed the markers G-H-E-F.

From the Michigan DNR hiking brochure: "The trail begins at the Blockhouse, has a number of ups and downs and follows many of the dune ridges. For a splendid view of the city of Muskegon, stop and look from atop the quiet dune near intersection E. You can also observe a blowout, an open area on the dune ridge, the result of vegetation disturbance."

the trailhead for the scenic ridge trail

The Scenic Ridge Trail starts at the Block House on Scenic Drive. To start on the trail you can either cross the steep valley off from the lower parking area by the block house or head down hill along the road to the unmarked trailhead. Watch for the white "State Park Closed to Hunting" sign on the post shown above at the start of the trail.

After following the trail up the ridge you come to the open sandy area with trails heading off in several different directions shown above. Most of this loop is fairly well marked, but we could not find anything here. We took our best guess and headed down the hill to the right.

A little further down the trail we found a post that told us we were headed in the right direction.

The kids were excited about climbing this sandy hill than we were. Lucky for us the trail turned off to the right at the base of the hill.

Reid decided that he didn't want to walk anymore, so he did a lay down protest in the middle of the trail. We kept walking and when he realized that it wasn't working he was up and running after us. Where to they learn this?

turn at the road on the scenic ridge trail

At about 1 mile?? the trail comes out by Scenic Drive before heading back into the woods.

group camp area along the scenic ridge trail

After this the trail run through the "Youth Camping Area." There are a couple pit toilets here if anyone needs to make a pit stop.

We followed the gravel road through the empty camping area until we saw the post above pointing us up the hill to the right.

open area on the top of the scenic ridge

After the camp the trail climbs up to an area that is a little more open up on another dune ridge.

Near the top of the ridge it opens up to the right and you can see a little of Muskegon Lake to the east.

Time to give the little legs a rest.

Later the trail opens up to the west and you can a view of Lake Michigan between the dunes.

Starting to descend back down off the ridge. Just past here you get back to the open sandy area at the start of the hike and then backtrack to the trailhead.

We took the short cut across the steep valley back to the car.

checking out the block house at muskegon state park

After the hike we walked up the hill to check out the Blockhouse.

inside the blockhouse muskegon state park

Inside the top of the Blockhouse. There really is not much of view from up here anymore.

The GPS track from our hike. The loop was just under 2 miles and it took our crew about 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete it.

At the end of our hike the clouds were starting to move in from north. By the time we finished eating lunch back at the campsite we could see that rain was on the way so we finished packing up and headed home.

The Muskegon State Park hiking trail guide and map. Scroll down for the map on page 2.

To download or print this trail map and guide click here >>

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