“Everything we do here in the wintertime relies on natural weather conditions.”
Bill Bailey is an Outdoor Adventure Specialist with Muskegon Luge Adventure Sports Park. The nonprofit group leases the 300 acres of Muskegon State Park that makes up the facility through a partnership with the Michigan DNR. They receive no funding through the state of Michigan; the facility is funded through programs, donations, and grants.
Bailey says that with milder winters becoming more common, they’ve had to come up with additional year-round activities.
“Because winters are certainly not improving. There’s a lot of indications that suggest we’re going to have continued warm winters here in Michigan or winters that don’t bring quite as much snow as they used to.”
Those year-round activities include hiking, a zip line, rock climbing wall, and a new form of synthetic ice imported from Switzerland for ice skating, called Slice. But even with these new offerings, Bailey says that they’re not able to completely transition from those winter activities.
“We kind of have this in-between time where it’s not quite cold enough to make ice but it’s still not quite warm enough to operate our zip line.”
Because of this, the park is currently closed. Despite these setbacks, Bailey says they will continue to hold out hope that winter will still make at least one more appearance before February is over.
“We never give up. Winter always arrives in Michigan and sometimes it’s spotty and sometimes it’s delayed.”
