The West Michigan Pike from Grand Haven to Ludington

The West Michigan Pike was built between 1911 and 1922 as one of the country’s early tourist roads, and it became the first continuous road linking Chicago with Mackinaw City. It later became part of US-31. In 2016 the state designated a long shoreline stretch of the old Pike as a Pure Michigan Byway, developed by the Michigan Beachtowns Association with Travel Michigan and MDOT. MDOT now lists it as a state recreation byway.

This record covers the byway’s northern half. From Grand Haven, with its state park beach and pierhead lights, the route heads north into Muskegon on the business loop rather than the freeway bypass. Muskegon County holds several of the byway’s named scenic stops, from dune trails at Muskegon State Park and P.J. Hoffmaster State Park to the White River Light Station near Whitehall.

North of the twin towns of Whitehall and Montague on White Lake, US-31 continues past Pentwater to Ludington, at the byway’s northern end, where the S.S. Badger sails across Lake Michigan in season. The drive works well in summer, when the beach towns are busiest, and in fall, when the shoreline woods turn.