#ThrowbackThursday: Hayes Former Hey Day

One of the things that fascinate me are long lost forgotten places. Today’s Throwback Thursday takes me back to Hayes State Park, but a loop you might not recognize – unless you camped there upwards of 50 years ago.

The above photo is a loop at the end of a very old, asphalt road in the park. Driving in past the ranger station, you’ll see a drive that’s closed off with permanent barricades. If you walk down this overgrown road, you’ll come to this leaf covered loop at the end that nature has reclaimed. This was one of the original camping loops. My family camped here years before I was born, maybe not in this loop, but definitely when the loop was still in use.

Walking down this road, what I couldn’t understand is the terrain – it’s terribly hilly and sloped on both sides. I don’t know how anyone camped back here, even in tents. Did the landscape change over time?

At the far end, we found several of these moss covered parking blocks – ancient wood bolted into cement blocks. Unless this was a kind of parking area, I would imagine these were the barriers at the end of the site to prevent a trailer from rolling. I’ve seen cement blocks in use today at campgrounds for this purpose, but these were wood planks on a cement base.

We followed a trail to an opening in the woods and I found a piece to the puzzle. At the end of the trail is the remnants of a bridge.

I’ve paddled past these cement foundations many times – it’s the entrance of the canal that connects Round Lake to Wamplers Lake. I don’t know if it was a road or a foot bridge, but this time I found it by land instead of by water. Here is what it looks like from my kayak. In the below photo, we were standing on top of this foundation.

Here is the other side, as seen from the end of the trail.

This would be the canal with the cement foundations to your right and left, when I paddled this section on another day.

So!  Was this a road? A trail?  I have yet to find out – the other side looks like private property so I’m not sure how much further it would go.

We traipsed back through the woods, looking for evidence of a pavilion that once stood somewhere on the west side of the drive. We found a path, and followed that for a while, until something caught my eye down a steep hill. A 3V Cola bottle, along with some broken pieces from a Pepsi bottle, it’s yellow print bleached white over probably at least 40 summers.

The trail ended and we took a shortcut back to the asphalt road, where we spotted an old water faucet.

Tonight I reached out to Michigan DNR to see if they have anything in the archives, old photos, anything. They basically just directed me to inquire at the park, which I’ve already done. So I’ll keep digging and exploring!