[Gary/Porter, IN, Sep 12, 2023]

Indiana Dunes National Park is one of the youngest. It got upgraded from a National Lakeshore in 2019 to become the nation’s 61st national park. It runs for about 20 miles along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, in northwestern Indiana. The closest big city is Chicago, IL. If you’re coming from there, be aware that Chicago is on Central time, while Indiana Dunes is on Eastern time.

Indiana Dunes, like a lot of non-West Coast parks, gets a bad rap. But it’s actually home to an amazing diversity of plant and bird life. The struggle between preservation and industry is still on display here; I could see some sort of mill/factory from West Beach.

Despite its relatively small size, the park is tough to see in one day because it has 3 distinct areas with lots of different things to see in each. From west to east, I did the following things in the park with less than a day to spare.

Paul H Douglas Trail

This 3.4 mile out-and-back trail is an excellent introduction into the diversity of the park. You will pass through wetlands to oak savannah to the beach! There is also a visitor center at the trailhead, but it was closed on the day I did this trail.

West Beach area

This is the most popular area of the park. You can hike a lot and also relax on the beach, and there is plenty of parking. I did the Dune Succession 1-mile hike, which takes you up 250 stairs to the top of a dune with beautiful views of the beach. The park has branded this as Diana of the Dunes Dare, so if you take a selfie with the poster on the trail, you get a sticker at the visitor center!

At the end of this trail, I saw what seemed like a lake in the middle of a dune! I was very curious as to how this might have formed, and a sign nearby gave me the answer. The exact name for this is a panne. The wind sometimes carves out bowls in the sand if there is no vegetation there. The bowl may reach the underlying water table and fill up with water. It was a great reminder about how fragile and ever changing the dunes are.

The Century of Progress Historic District

For a very unique national park experience, head to the very east end of the park to the Century of Progress Historic District. It houses a handful of homes that were built for the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago. The theme was “Century of Progress”, and these homes celebrated it by featuring modern conveniences such as dishwashers and air conditioning, as well as innovative materials. Four of the houses were brought to the dunes by barge in 1935 by real estate developer Robert Bartlett. The Cypress Log Cabin was dismantled at the fair and moved by truck. Bartlett hoped that the high profile houses would entice buyers to his new resort community of Beverly Shores. Today, they are listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and are inhabited.

Indiana Dunes Visitor Center (Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center)

Stop by the park’s main visitor center in Porter, IN, to get your dunes dare sticker & passport stamps. There are also two orientation videos, which by now you probably don’t need!