The swinging bridge over Grand Ravines

Most of Ottawa County is flat farmland and lake plain, so the first time you walk into Grand Ravines it’s a small shock. The ground simply drops away — steep, fern-lined gorges carved over thousands of years by little streams cutting down toward the Grand River. And strung across the deepest of them is a 275-foot pedestrian suspension bridge that sways, just slightly, with every step.

Walking it is the whole point. The bridge floats well above the ravine floor, so you cross at the level of the treetops, looking out into a canopy instead of up at it. On a breezy day it gives the gentlest of bounces underfoot — enough to remind you you’re suspended over open air, not enough to scare anyone off.

What’s down in those ravines is as unusual as the drop. The cool, shaded slopes shelter plants you don’t expect in this corner of Michigan: Kentucky coffee-trees, pawpaws, and towering tulip trees. The county’s natural-features inventory singled out the ravine system and its unusual plant communities as one of Ottawa County’s most significant natural features.

The park spreads across both rims of the ravine system, with parking lots on either side and several miles of trail looping through the woods. There’s a lodge that locals rent for weddings and parties, drawn by the same scenery — vows said with a gorge as the backdrop.

It’s also a link in the Grand River Greenway, the long trail corridor knitting the river country between Lake Michigan and Grand Rapids together. So you can treat Grand Ravines as a destination of its own, or as one dramatic stretch of a much longer walk.

Either way, stop in the middle of the bridge. Let it sway. Look down into the green.