Ludington State Park is a playground for lovers of the outdoors. The 5,300-acre park stretches between Lake Michigan and Hamlin Lake with beaches and shoreline at both sides. In addition to swimming and boating, fishermen can try for brown trout, lake trout, northern pike, salmon, steelhead, and largemouth and smallmouth bass. The park includes a 2-mile bike trail, a 4-mile canoe trail, a 10-mile cross-country ski trail and a 21 1/2-mile hiking trail. Hunters can use roughly two-thirds of the park's grounds to look for deer, waterfowl and squirrels. The park has three modern campgrounds that offer electricity with modern bathroom and shower facilities. Campers can choose to have an authentic camping experience at the Jack Pine Hike-In campground, which offers 10 remote tent sites with rustic toilet facilities and no electricity. Additionally, the Cedar campground includes eight sites with tents and no electricity, but is within walking distance of modern showers and restrooms.
Historic White Pine Village gives visitors a glimpse of what the Ludington area used to be like with more than 25 historic buildings and sites. The venue includes Mason County's first courthouse, built in 1849, a one-room school built circa 1895 and a general store from the late 1800s. The Historic White Pine Village also has museums such as the Abe Nelson Lumbering Museum with artifacts from the area's once-thriving mill industry and the Rose Hawley Museum filled with furniture and clothing exhibits. Sports fans can attend an Old Time Base Ball game, which is a mix of a historical reenactment and a competitive game. The players use baseball rules from the 1860s. The old-time rules call for fielders not using gloves, umpires not calling balls and strikes, and a fly ball counting as an out if it's caught on the first bounce.
Parents don't have to think twice about bringing the whole family to the Ludington area. The Sandcastles Children's Museum keeps kids busy with interactive exhibits. The activities are as educational as they are fun. The options include a grocery store that teaches about proper nutrition, a barn area with replica animals and a corn conveyor that children can load, and a post office where kids write and mail letters. Future artists can draw in an art center, while aspiring actors can play on a theater stage. A padded infant center accommodates younger children. The Sandcastles Children's Museum also has events on Fridays and Saturdays such as Grandparents Day and seasonal events like Halloween Art Day.
