Ludington and Grand Ledge - last day of the fall color tour!

 Sunday morning we woke up to a gloriously sunny day again but with LESS WIND!  So after a great breakfast in town, we went back out to the lighthouse to see if we could walk out the pier without getting wet or washed into Lake Michigan. And we could! It was a bit wet and slimy-slippery in spots but our feet stayed dry.  It's a surprisingly long walk- from the nearby parking area, it was a mile round trip!

There were no signs to describe the history but it appears the base is the bow of an old steel ship maybe?  Regardless, it was a nice walk and a great view back to shore and out across Lake Michigan.

Next stop was in Grand Ledge, a small town just west of Lansing.  I hadn't known much about the town other than a coworker lived there until another friend was there to watch her son do some rock climbing. Rock climbing, in Grand Ledge?  Really???  Yup.  I didn't take any pictures of the people that were there climbing (it felt kinda rude to do) but sure enough, they were all over the place and one guy even offered to hook us up and teach us how!

It's not a big park or a long walk, but if you take the stairs to the bottom of the rocks, you go along the river looking back up at these sheer rock walls that are really quite beautiful.  This one had this perfect 90 degree cut that wasn't man made!

There was some pretty color along the path and the river was quiet and powerful at the same time knowing that long, long, long ago, it had probably helped to cut these rocks.

Water seeps from the rocks and keeps the paths quite damp.  This cave was surrounded by a heavy wet moss and dripped steadily at the entrance.

It's pretty rugged in some spots and the colors in the rock are just beautiful!

Some of the oranges in the rock matched the oranges in the trees.  Just lovely.

I caught Garry by surprise in this one - but I like it!!

Another Pure Michigan spot!

We really suck at this selfie thing!

Next stop was just a few miles away, still along the Grand River, at a bird sanctuary where there were supposed to be some nice hiking trails.  And there were!

The trails wound through open fields and forests too.

Lots of great color in the oaks and maples.

And there we ended our quick weekend color tour trip and headed home...where the colors are great here now too!!