Sometimes you just have to get out on your own, and Michigan state parks have plenty of ways to do that. Here, a young girl enjoys the ride at P.H. Hoeft State Park in Presque Isle County.

ALPENA –The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has received $16 million of funding from the American Rescue Plan to improve state parks.

The 11 state parks to be repaired will see varying levels of improvements in the first round of projects. Some will see electric and water system upgrades while other projects will remove lead paint from park infrastructures.

Ron Olson, the Chief of Parks and Recreation for the DNR, said the repairs will take time, so visitors will need to be patient.

“We’re hoping that the visitors that we have will understand that, in the end, these are all needed things to be done in the facilities and all will be in better shape once we’re finished,” he said.

Olson said the money received from ARPA will help the DNR catch up on projects in need of immediate attention.The first round of work will be for obvious repairs of park infrastructure, but later phases will improve and modernize the properties.

One of the state parks that will be updated and renovated is the P.H. Hoeft State Park near Rogers City.

Park Supervisor Blake Gingrich said the work is long overdue.

“Our workers have done a great job keeping our bathrooms and stations clean,” Gingrich said. “But these buildings are old. I think that when it’s said and done, people are going to be happy with the work.”

Gingrich said the last time the state park saw work done on its infrastructure was in 2019 for electrical components. Previous evaluations have estimated needed renovations for the park to be millions of dollars, according to Gingrich, who said the park has only been able to work with small, spare revenue.

“We were nickel (and) diming it,” Gingrich said. “To see that we’ll be getting the money needed to really fix up this place is nice.”

Gingrich said he’s unsure when work will start, but he hopes to start first with the sanitation stations for campers.