Indiana Dunes National Park

I hate to admit it, but the internet algorithms have me figured out. On Instagram, the recommended videos are usually either about National Parks or the Legend of Zelda video games. A type of video that pops up quite often is something like a ranking list of "the WORST National Parks EVER!' And by now, I've seen enough of these videos to know that they will include stock-image (or AI generated) pictures of the parks, which suggests that the creators haven't actually been to the parks they're criticizing. And usually the same parks will appear on those lists - Gateway Arch, Congaree, Hot Springs, Mammoth Cave, Petrified Forest, and Indiana Dunes.

Indiana Dunes National Park is located about an hour away from Chicago, along the southern shore of Lake Michigan. It protects about 15,000 acres of land, which includes many sand dunes and about 15 miles of shoreline. It's the sixth smallest National Park, but for being so small it contains a wide variety of ecosystems. Besides the dunes and shorelines, the park is also home to swamps, bogs, marshes, forests, oak savannas, prairies, and rivers. Over 1,100 native plant species can be found in the park, making it the fourth most biodiverse National Park.

Since we were so close, we rented a car and drove over from Chicago. I was curious to see the park, and if it truly was one of the WORST National Parks EVER!

We headed into Indiana and then checked into our hotel. Then we drove into the park and visited Porter Beach. The kids played in the water and in the sand, and I got the camera out to take a few pictures.



One of the coolest things about Indiana Dunes is that on clear days, you can see the Chicago skyline way off in the distance. Chicago is about 50 miles away, on the other side of the lake.



The sand dunes at Indiana Dunes are "wandering dunes" and always moving. At Porter Beach, the dunes here are starting to swallow up this fire hydrant.



And a nice sunset ended the day:





The next morning we headed back into the park and visited West Beach, which is home to one of the most popular trails in the park. Here the Dune Succession trail steeply climbs up to the top of Diana's Dune. The dune is named after Alice Mabel Gray, who lived here in the early 1900s when development was starting to encroach on the dunes. She was known as "Diana of the Dunes" after she worked to bring attention to the dunes and to help them be saved as a nature preserve. It is hard to hike on sand, but luckily a lot of the trail is along wooden boardwalks.



At the top you have a nice view of the lake and the dune, and then the trail drops down into a forest.



And then runs along the top of the dune before heading down to the beach:



Later that day we went to the small beach at the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk. It's a nice spot, even with a massive steel factory sitting nearby.



But there's also a nice view of a little lighthouse, and a fishing pier.







And then that evening, we got dinner at a brewery in the town of Michigan City. After we left, we drove by the sign for Mt. Baldy and decided to make a quick stop. Mt. Baldy is one of the largest dunes in the area, standing 126 foot-tall. We started the short trail, which went deep into a forest that was already getting dark under the thick canopy of trees.



And like the light at the end of the tunnel, we saw bright orange in the sky through the trees. Which meant there was a nice sunset brewing. We hurried to the end of the trail, and was treated to this view:



The bright colors really helped bring out the silhouette of the Chicago skyline, miles and miles away in Illinois.





We stayed there until the light began to fade out, it was a great way to end our trip to Indiana Dunes National Park.



The park isn't all that big, but we still didn't end up seeing everything there. We didn't hike all the trails, or visit all of the beaches. But it is still a neat park, and I'd say it's worthy of being a National Park. In our current political environment, when the Park Service's funding is under direct attack, we should seek to promote all of our parks. Even the ones that aren't as traditionally scenic as Yosemite or the Grand Canyon.