Newaygo on the Muskegon River: choose your access first

Newaygo is a handy place to meet the lower Muskegon River, but the best starting point depends on what you came to do. For a walk, picnic, or first look at the water, use the city’s two-part Riverfront Park. Its paved path follows the river and gives you shore access without making you solve a shuttle.

For a trailer launch, the DNR’s Bridge Street site sits across the river from Riverfront Park and has a concrete ramp. Ed Henning County Park, about 1.5 river miles upstream, has a paved lot, a ramp, shore fishing, and camping. Henning is a county park and requires the county’s current motor-vehicle permit; Bridge Street is a DNR site and Riverfront Park is city land, so do not assume one pass or parking rule covers all three.

For a float, choose the takeout first. DNR lists a useful downstream ladder: the Croton tailwater, Pine Street, High Rollway at Thornapple Street, Henning Park, Bridge Street, and Felch Street at Anderson Flats. Its listed gaps are 1.3, 6.7, 6.4, 1.5, and 3.7 river miles. Those are distances, not promised float times. Water level, wind, stops, group speed, and a shuttle can change the day considerably.

Do not read that access list as a difficulty rating. DNR calls the Croton-to-Newaygo reach a big river with swift current, shallower water, and a mix of sand, cobble, and boulders. Propeller boats can struggle there. A local livery can match a current route and shuttle to your group, but ask which launch and takeout it is using that day instead of planning around an old business map.

Croton Dam also matters upstream. Consumers Energy warns that water discharged below a hydro plant can create rising, falling, turbulent currents that are hard to see. Newaygo County posts current launch closures and bases them on river gauges. Check that county page and the USGS Croton gauge before leaving home, and stay off the river when an access is closed or the water is high, fast, or muddy.

If you are headed closer to the dam, use the Croton tailwater guide. It separates the moving river below Croton from Croton Pond above it and Hardy Pond farther upstream. The statewide rivers and tubing guide covers life jackets, strainers, cold water, and other trip basics.