P H Hoeft State Park: A Mile Of Pristine White Sand Beach And Dunes

A modern campground with a rustic feel

The park provides both tent and RV campsites. A modern lodge can be rented for up to 8 people. You’ll think you’re in the thick of an old forest, but that doesn’t mean you have to rough it. All campsites include basic amenities like fire pits, picnic tables, and electrical service. Vintage water fountains are spaced through the camping areas, bringing up cool drinking water, and each has a spigot on the side for filling sundry vessels. Modern bathrooms are cleaned regularly. Between the camping area and the beach, there is an extensive playground, complete with areas for grown-ups to sit.

The park is open year-round. Campsite fees are reasonable and vary. RV sites are 34 USD, tent sites are 23 USD, and the fee goes down to 17 USD in the off season. The lodge is available for 140 USD per night. As with all Michigan state parks, a Recreation Pass is required – this is the same pass that will grant access to all of Michigan’s state parks for the full year.

Privacy Is a welcome experience

Healthy patches of moss cover the ground; pines and hardwoods make dense curtains that shield one site from another. Many units are so enclosed by greenery that you can almost forget you’re in a facility with 144 campsites. RV sites include pads for parking on, but tent sites are open and the choice of how to position tents and equipment is up to you. Between the walls of trees and the dappled shade of the forest canopy, you’ll feel enclosed by Nature herself. In fact, you’ll be far more aware of your chipmunk neighbors than your human ones.

Entertain a sense of whimsy

It’s impossible to sit in the forest of Hoeft State Park and not feel the call of the trail. Campsites are often spaced with wooded barriers in-between. Over the decades, trails have been worn by visitors exploring the undergrowth, or finding more expedient routes to the restrooms and water fountains.

The park also boasts a system of hiking trails that take hikers through about 10 miles of forest, dunes, and beach. And while there is a main path that leads campers from the wooded areas to the dunes and the beach, many trails wind between those spaces, and allow folks to find a more secluded path to the sand. In the winter, cross-country skiing becomes the best way to explore the trails.

A perfect white-sand beach

Michigan has countless miles of beaches, but not all of them are so beautiful and sandy. Nearly half of Hoeft State Park is beach and dunes. The park contains a full mile of sandy, clean, white beach. The crash of the waves is rhythmic, and it’s soothing to just sit and watch them break as they approach the shore, or else feel them run up and over your toes as you walk barefoot along the water’s edge.

This beach is great for those who love being in the water. It’s a little chilly, but the sand continues far out into the clean, clear water. Drying isn’t a chore, because the sand just clings until your skin is dry, when it falls off, leaving no dirt behind. If anything, it exfoliates.

One of the more exclusive features of this beach is that it’s an amazing location to watch the sunrise. Each morning, the sun appears on the horizon, coming up behind the water. Sunsets are beautiful, as well. Folks gather here and there on the beach and on the tops of dunes to watch the sun fall behind the trees. The great stretch of sky over the water shifts through a rainbow of colors before finally fading and exposing stars. You’ll walk back to your campsite in the dark, with the sound of the waves still crashing behind you.

Picturesque dunes beg to be climbed

Every year, vast numbers of tourists flock to Lake Michigan and the giant sand dunes that monopolize the coastlines. While Michigan’s western beaches are every bit as lovely as their reputation, many people don’t realize that the northern shore of Michigan on Lake Huron boasts some stunning dune scenery as well, and with only a fraction of the tourists.

Hoeft State Park’s long stretch of dunes and beach is a wonderland for exploration. Kids and adults alike find hours of pleasure delving into the water, the grassy slopes, the steep sandy hills, and the patches of forested footpaths that meander through.