Crane Creek (no longer a) State Park

"Sunset at Crane Creek," courtesy of Sally Wehner, Sally's Photostream

Living in rural northwest Ohio, we mostly swam in ponds, pools, and at some of the smaller lakes in Michigan, where we'd spend the day at family cottages. Those were magical times: jumping off the docks, taking peaceful rides on a pontoon boat, running across rough wood floors in our sandy bare feet. For a child who grew up with so little water in her life, there's no explaining my love for it now. I understand the draw of other landscapes: the majesty and beauty of mountains, the quiet stillness of forests, the beauty of great architecture, or the thrill of walking through the world's grand cities, but for me, I would pass on it all to be on an ocean beach. As a rather landlocked Ohioan, what I have instead is Lake Erie.

From the first time I spent a day at Crane Creek State Park, I was smitten. For 30 years, in spite of the fact it was never a convenient trip from the places we lived, it was a regular destination for summer days. In the early days we swam on the smaller, less well maintained beach, with Davis-Besse nuclear power plant lurking along the horizon. We had so much fun, scouring the beach for trinkets, creating monuments from driftwood.

Later they turned that beach over to the birds, so we would walk along the shore there after a day in the sun, or take the dogs to run and swim.

We had picnics and parties on the larger, busier beach. The seagulls were bold there, bold enough they would sometimes steal food right off hot grills. That beach had breakers, so if the wind was right, we could play in big waves. Most of the time though it was a peaceful place to sit and read a summer novel, watch boats and birds go by, and then watch the sun set from the same spot on the beach where the first photo here was taken.

For ages I whined about how I had never seen a bald eagle, even though there are dozens in this area, and I spend a lot of time on the lake and hiking along the Maumee River, in areas where they're known to be found. Last summer I would have missed my chance, if it weren't for excitement of the other people on the beach calling our attention to one as he flew by. This one was the doing the flight equivalent of "booking," straight down the shoreline, singlemindedly heading to wherever it was he needed to go, oblivious to the awe of those of us on the beach underneath where he flew.

For a few years after it was opened, we defected to Maumee Bay State Park because it's closer. It is a truly beautiful park, more polished than Crane Creek. Eventually though, I realized for a few more minutes' drive, I could go back to the beaches at Crane Creek, where the waves came in along the breakers, where we could take long walks along the shore as the sun was setting.

Since one of the reasons I loved it there was how quiet it had become, and how often we were amongst only a handful of people on the beach on any given day, it might have occured to me that eventually they would stop keeping it open just for us. Still I was saddened when the state closed the beach this summer and added the entire park to the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. Of course more shoreline for nesting is a good thing for the birds, and the park itself is still open to visitors. We took a drive over there one day, after leaving Maumee Bay because of afternoon storms. It was completely deserted and somewhat unnerving. Already the beaches are becoming more wild and unruly. We explored several places within the larger park that we'd never taken the time to investigate before. Now that spending time on the beach is out of the question, we will make the drive over there to walk the trails and look for birds and wildlife, which is after all what the real purpose of the parks should be.