This place is great for family, parties, sports, fishing, anything and everything…read more The bathrooms need a little bit more light but this place is overall great.

From the City of Monroe website. Munson Park Information…read more Located on the extreme west side of the City, Munson Park includes 212.07 acres adjacent to Monroe Custer Airport. It includes both active and passive areas although the emphasis is on active pursuits. Four lighted regulation adult softball diamonds with spectator seating and flagpoles at the ball diamond entrance, two youth sized ball diamonds, twelve soccer fields, a soccer concession/restroom building, four tennis courts, a large community built playscape, a jogging/exercise trail, walking/biking trail through the woods at the north end of the property, approximately 80 acres of restored native prairie grass, a skate park for skateboarding and inline skating, a pond with a spray fountain and two sand volleyball courts are found on the developed part of the park. Winter recreation activity areas include an outdoor ice skating on the pond located near a sledding hill. Paved parking lots provide parking for approximately 200 vehicles. Picnic shelters with cooking grills near the playground equipment offer respite from the active areas. The ball diamonds are serviced by a two-story concession building with a food concession and restrooms on the lower level and a scorekeeping loft on the upper level. Drinking fountains are available at the picnic shelter area, and at the ball diamond concession and the soccer concession areas. The City offers community garden plots for rent where local residents may grow fresh vegetables and fruits within the undeveloped part of the site.

Luna beach and pier is a small beach on Lake Erie. The…read moreconcrete crescent pier is good for fishing as I been told. It looks nice in the winter with ice build up. Good place to observe seiche also. Someone recently found a jet ski and an old car during seiche.

What a nice little beach in a tiny lakeside town! I visited with a friend on a very hot Monday…read moreafternoon, found a parking spot ($2 per hour), grabbed some chairs and we got our feet into the lake to cool off. The beach sits in a nice curved area at the western end of Lake Erie, and it is surrounded by small homes and wooded views in the distance. The large swimming area is marked off and has a gentle slope for wading in. The lighthouse is right on the shore and has restrooms and an outside shower. The pier is actually a concrete walkway with a crescent shape that is pleasant to explore. The only negative was the smelly trash cans near the restrooms...dead fish smell in that area only.

When we first pulled up to the site there was a gaggle of historical reenactors dressed in…read moreuncomfortable woolen outfits holding muskets. They gotta be crazy about this place. Me, I thought it was pretty meh. My brother-in-law said his daughters were pretty salty about a former ice rink getting turned into the museum here and from the vast amount of empty space on one side you can tell they were light on material and/or budget. The model of the fort was probably my favorite part but that only takes five or ten minutes tops. There is a number of very mediocre nature murals and models of period dwellings sometimes with cheap mannequins hanging out. It doesn't take long for a walkthrough. This place isn't exactly Greenfield Village. My brother-in-law got the attendants to give us a special screening of a short documentary made about the big battle of the War of 1812 that took place here. It was decent and this outing would have felt really underwhelming without it. I don't know what the usual schedule and criteria for screenings is. Not much of a national park as evidenced by the modest gift shop selling merchandise for larger and more well known national parks. The field itself is just that, a big ol field without so much as a hiking trail with historical markers. I'm glad we were able to pair this with the Michigan Museum of Horror for our Monroe expedition as I don't know if either, this especially, was worth the trip alone.

Visited years ago before they redid the Visitor Center- WOW- What a difference, they really outdid…read morethemselves with the displays, and the size of the museum. It is definitely a good place to take the Family on a hot or rainy day. It has a lot of space full of well done exhibits. We especially loved it as it ties in with our recent visit to Voyageurs National Park.

This is a really nice State Park! It has miles of trails, nature everywhere, we see rabbits,…read more Gophers and Deer daily. This is a bird watchers paradise. The camp ground is really nice also.

This is one of the most relaxing places I've ever been. I stayed for 3 days and I already signed up…read moreto come back next month.

Heck Park is a park which formerly was jointly owned and operated by the City of Monroe and Monroe…read moreCounty but is now under the sole ownership of Monroe County. A Vietnam Veterans Memorial has been developed at the site which is overseen by a special Heck Park Committee, which has members from the Park Commission, the County Board, and the Vietnam Veterans Chapter 142. Heck Park has Parking, Restrooms, Pavilion seating approximately 30 adults, Trails, Playground, Basketball court, Sled Hill, Veteran's Memorial, Charcoal operated cooking grills available but has no electrical outlets.

This is one heck of a park. It is a memorial to Viet Nam veterans. It doesn't take but 10 minutes…read moreto see the whole place but it is a true photo opportunity. I liked that they also had a box to deposit old American flags.

This pretty park is an oasis just across the river from the main downtown shops. It's a great place…read moreto bring a lunch and just watch the river roll on by! If you time it right, you'll be treated to the beautiful bells of St. Mary's Catholic Church chiming out the hour. Take a stroll across the covered pedestrian bridge. It is screened and fenced in so safe for all. Bicycles can be walled across. When the river is running fast you can stand in the middle of the bridge and get your brave on! Its exciting. The park features plenty of trees for shade, restrooms, playground equipment and picnic tables.

In regard to waterfowling, people often dump on this place because:…read more 1) The open marsh areas can get super crowded--not a great thing for a sport involving shotguns. Get out there early if you want a good spot, but don't be surprised if someone motors in ten minutes before shooting time and sets up 50 yards from you. 2) You will run into slob hunters: people who skybust, crowd your zone in the managed areas, try to bully you out of your spot, call constantly (and badly) thus driving off ducks working your spread, shoot grebes, seagulls, and swans, and dump trash in parking lots. 3) A lot of time the hunting can be poor. 4) There are only about four zones in the managed area that are usually productive. 5) Thefts from cars aren't unusual at the boat launches, and when you get to one in the wee hours of the morning, you can run into some sketchy characters. But you have to take the bad with the good. There is probably not a better public waterfowling area near Detroit. It's accessible for walk-in hunters as well as those with boats. There's some great habitat and the staff there works hard maintaining and improving it. Hit this place during a migration and the hunting can be fantastic. And while the slobs are always out, you'll meet some great people there too: very skilled hunters, guys who will help you get your boat in and out, even some who invite you to join their party. More often than not other hunters are sportsmanlike and friendly, despite those sometimes sour a hunt there. If Pte. Mouillee were farther from a major population center it likely wouldn't have many of the problems it does. But waterfowlers in Detroit wouldn't enjoy nearly the opportunities they have thanks to it.

I only go here for fishing, and it's a very peaceful place sometimes. It's not crowded with kids…read moreor other park goers, because nobody ever goes back there except to fish or boat. On weekends, it's hard to find a place to even fish, because it's so crowded. There's always a flow of boats coming and going from the docks. I like that you can pull up right to the water and fish, so it's convenient to listen to the radio in your car and not lug supplies all around. I've been here many times with a cooler full of beer and haven't had a problem with that. The waters can be somewhat clogged with grass, but there are some good fish in there.

This was our first time to ride our bicycles on the 14 mile round trip Raisin River Heritage Trail…read more The asphalt and concrete paved trail starts from the trailhead parking lot at Munson Park a couple miles west of downtown Monroe and runs eastward along miles of the picturesque Raisin River. It winds across the river on a pedestrian bridge in the very heart of downtown Monroe. Continuing eastward, the trail runs past the Raisin River Battlefield Park (site of a battle in the War of 1812) before entering Sterling State Park on Lake Erie. Here, the trail offers some sweet views of nature in environmentally protected wetlands. Despite the great views, there are two big drawbacks to this 14 mile round trip trail. First, much of the trail in the city consists of uneven narrow sidewalks making it impossible to ride side-by-side. Next, and even more impactful, the asphalt surface of the eastern-most section of the trail in Sterling State Park is extremely rough and bumpy with cracks and buckles every few feet. It is impossible to maneuver through this minefield of bumps and cracks at more than 5 MPH. This area is in desperate need of a repaving. Overall, the quality of the trail's pavement greatly diminished the pleasure of the scenery on this bike ride. The Heritage Trail unfortunately earns a fair rating of 2 stars.