Get Outdoors, Get Off Road as Silver Lake ORV Area Sets Opening
Call it social distancing on the sand dunes. Oceana County's Silver Lake State Park ORV Area is set to open on June 3.
This is the news hundreds of owners of Jeeps, 4wd trucks, quads, dirt bikes, and custom-built sand rails have been waiting for. Silver Lake State Park is nearly 2,000 acres of rolling sand hills. Of that, 250 acres have been set aside for off-road vehicles: ORVs. Michigan Department of Natural Resources is targeting a June 3rd opening.
The popular ORV scramble area typically opens April 1 each year. However, DNR parks and recreation staff recognized in mid-March that the coronavirus situation likely would cause serious delays, and at that time the department postponed the opening date to May 1 and also closed many amenities at state parks and recreation areas.
As the date has now been pushed back to June 3, there is still a lot of work to be done.
To prepare the ORV area for the riding season, tasks such as opening and cleaning bathrooms, hiring and training seasonal staff, maintaining infrastructure and making changes to safely reroute dune traffic will be completed once nonessential work is permitted. Staff is tentatively scheduled to begin working May 15 and the prep work is anticipated to take about three weeks.
So gas up the toys and get ready for some pure Michigan fun. In the meantime, take a virtual tour with this interactive map.
Five Great Places to Ride Your Motorcyle in Michigan