Crockstar Chronicle: 78 Michigan Parks: Orchard Beach State Park #38

Now that all of my children are in middle school and above, I am making a pointed effort to schedule as many appointments outside of school as possible. In this case, that meant going in for a scan the day after we returned from camping!

Avia and Emily both came along for the adventure, but they ventured out to go thrift store shopping and use some of the summer reading prizes, from Cane's, while we had the scans completed.

Once upon a time, the kids would do the entire bridge during these appointments, but they are so tall now, it's much harder for them!

The technicians were awesome, and were able to overlap appointments, so as soon as William finished up with ultrasound, he was off to x-ray! Next up was Grace, and once Juliet headed to x-ray we sent Avia a message that we were almost ready!

Since the appointments were faster than planned, they were not nearby, and we had to entertain ourselves.

We found a nice patio/balcony with tables and a view, where we enjoyed our snacks.

A Lutheran Church with a German inscription, in Grand Rapids!

Sadly, we had more time than snack, so we went inside to check out the play area. My children might have been just a bit too tall for it!

After we passed through Muskegon, we found a rest stop, where Emily took over the driving. She drove us on the highway until we stopped at the scenic overlook near Ludington.

I'm not sure if there is a view of something in particular during winter months, but mostly we were looking at a giant gorge and treetops. In theory, you are facing Lake Michigan, but we couldn't see it on the day we visited.

The walking path that led back to the rest area looked really pleasant though!

On our way to the state park, we found the most commercialized farm stand that I'd ever stopped into. We all picked out some treats to snack on! William was hunting for food this entire trip, he must be growing! Billy probably ended up with the most treats, since we found him a cherry crisp, cherry cream cheese pie, and cherry sour candies!

We finally made it to the state park! Despite being named Orchard Beach, it has no beach access. It's rather like Baraga State Park, in that it is mostly a campground, with pretty views.

It looks like once upon a time it did go down to the beach!!!

There was a small 'wooded' area that had a path that we took back to the car, where we found a very fun tree. Emily used the 'shoe tying branch' to tie up the laces on her crocs. ; )

It looks like someone just threw Juliet into the tree!

Grace 'hanging around.'

The campers who were around seemed happy!

I sent Haley a makeshift postcard from this postbox. We'll see if it ever arrives! (I'll try to update here if it does, but as of 8-30-26, it hadn't arrived.)