Sterling State Park: Hike Reports

These hike reports were originally posted on the Great Lakes Hikes Yahoo group.

7/01/03

Re: Trail Report: Sterling State Park

Jeremy,

There are no rustic campsites. All 256 are RV accessible. Also, the campground is out in the open. Shade would be at a premium. However, you could probably just set up your tent and pull your sleeping bag down to the beach and sleep near the waves. I've always liked the view from Sterling into the lake. And I'd love to see a sunrise. However, there are several power plants visible from the campground - the largest is the Edison plant which tends to dominate the southern view. Basically, if you have a couple of friends from college and want a nice place to down a few beers around the campfire with really nice showers, this is the place.

During non-summer months, Lake Erie beach camping is available at Erie State Game Area farther south.

So, Sterling is not unpleasant, but it wouldn't be my first choice to camp at.

7/01/03

Hello!

Warning: this is a bike report:)

After $13 million dollars of renovation, I figured that SterlingState Park (Monroe, on Lake Erie) might be interesting to checkout. So, Kathy and I got on our bikes and spun around the place.

We started near one of the beach houses and followed a new 0.6 milepaved trail just inland from the beach. Very nice.

Then, we shot across a new bridge across interior marsh and zoomedaround the 2.8 mile Marsh Trail. Again, this trail is paved. We saw lots of birds and enjoyed the lush foliage that lined the trail. We also loved the many turns on this trail that made the biking interesting.

As we finished the loop, we followed a paved path along the park road and more interior marsh. I'd imagine this section added a couple of miles to our bike. So, we only ended up biking about 6 miles and did most of the park.

Then, we got off the bikes and walked the 1 mile round trip shoreline trail along the Lake. Nice views.

Every structure in the park is new. The beachhouses are new. The gigantic park headquarters are new. The trails are all smoothly repaved. The picnic areas are new. There are also nice interpretive displays in a couple of spots that focus on things like the old Monroe Piers. Anyone who had ever visited this place prior to the renovation will be impressed. Much improved.

However, there were some big disappointments. The new trail system seems only to add a few paved miles to the original system. I was hoping for much more. The park also ignores about half its current acreage. Uplands interior to the marshes are not used at all. I am hoping that eventually, some natural trails will be created here.

My biggest disappointment was the lack of any renovation to the US Army Corps of Engineers contaminated dredge site between the beach and boat launch. This area still has a rusty fence around it. There are paths along the top of the dikes that have been fenced off for as long as I've been alive. I was hoping walkers might get access to these. But no. And the shoreline trail did not even get repaved.

However, this park is much better than before. The campground is now right on the lake and I can already see the connector trail to the City of Monroe being worked on. It will make a nice daylong bike in a few years.

07/12/04

While Sterling SP (Monroe) is not a hiking destination, it does have a nice set of paved trails. They are also doing a really nice job of restoring marsh to the old campground and headquarters areas. Demolition of a nearby paper plant is in progress. The end result will be an enlarged battlefield park connected to Sterling along a Lake Erie marsh.