NEWS RELEASES
New Michigan Park To Include Campground, Scuba Diving And Swimming Beach
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through MLive's website.
FERRYSBURG, Mich. - MLive.com, a Michigan news source, reports that planning is moving forward for Ottawa County’s newest park. The 353-acre Ottawa Sands Park, which opened in the Fall last year, was a former sand mine. Ottawa County and the Land Conservancy of West Michigan combined their assets to purchase the $11 million property. Located along the banks of the Grand River, in an area known as “the Sag,” the new park includes 219 acres of state-designated critical dunes and an 80-acre man-made inland lake. Ottawa Sands is part of the Lake Michigan Coastal Greenway, a string of county, state and city parks that preserves the region’s sandy beaches, massive freshwater sand dunes and mature beech-maple-hemlock forests for use by the public.
Currently Ottawa Sands has minimal amenities, just four miles of marked hiking trails, catch-and-release fishing and portable toilets. The plan being discussed by Ottawa County officials would include significant developments, including a swimming beach, scuba diving, kayak rentals with a kayak launch into the Grand River, fishing docks and a modern campground. Greenway trails would connect to the North Ottawa Dunes and North Beach parks north of Ottawa Sands, and to the Kitchel-Lindquist Dunes Preserve to the south. Officials hope to complete the improvements in 2020.
For additional information, visit the Ottawa Sands webpage.