Fitzgerald Park: Hike Notes

Fitzgerald Park
5/2/03

After getting out of my conference tonight, I decided to get a little hiking in and headed to Grand Ledge. I started at the parking area for Fitzgerald Park and proceeded to hike about 2.5 miles of the 3 designated miles of trail. There are many more trails, it seems, that have been created by renegade hikers.

I took several of these, including one that followed the bank of one of themost gorgeous little streams in this part of the state. It had bubbling rapids and small waterfalls. I followed it back to a pretty large drop over some sandstone. This had a small human impoundment on it that was mostly collapsed. It made for a nice rush of water and good view. This made up for the trash that seemed to proliferate in some spots.

There were also some dramatic ascents/descents in this park, with great views of the stream bed up high and flowers all around.The Grand River in this section of the park has a sand beach as you get nice views of the dam. Then, I passed the sewage treatmentplant, a playground and an old revival barn from the 1800s to reach the Ledges Trail. This is way cool and provides rock formations that can be observed and climbed on.

For some reason, a section of this area has been turned into a disk golf course - don't ask me why. After a bit, I passed under a dramatically high railroad trestle and on to a beautiful picnic area at Island Park. I may check this place out again tomorrow. I'm hoping to find a route through town with pedestrian access to Lincoln Brick Park. I probably hiked about 4 or 5 miles tonight and hope to get a good ten-miler for my regular rotation. Waterfalls. Rock Formations. Bubbling streams. Big rail trestle. This is not a bad place.