Indiana Dunes National Park is a United States national park located in northwestern Indiana, managed by the National Park Service. It was authorized by Congress in 1966 as the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and was redesignated as the nation’s 61st national park on February 15, 2019. The park features over 50 miles of trails that lead through shifting sand dunes, quiet woodlands, sunny prairies, and lush wetlands. Indiana Dunes is known for its striking Paul H. Douglas Trail Trail, which is 3.3 miles out-and-back and easy to ascend.
The park offers the highest levels of biodiversity of any Indiana state park due to its location at the intersection of multiple ecosystems. Visitors can tour each of the over 60 historic structures within the park boundaries, including a National Historic Landmark. The park also features communities with both scientific and historic significance to the fields of animal and plant biology.
Indiana Dunes State Park was established in 1925 and designated a National Natural Landmark in 1974. Preserving the park has resulted from the efforts of many citizens and politicians. Indiana Dunes Landmarks include Coffee Creek Watershed Preserve, Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk, Chapel of the Resurrection, and Bailly Homestead.
Indiana Dunes National Park is one of 417 units of the National Park System, ranging from Yellowstone to the Statue of Liberty. With 15 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and a diverse ecosystem, the park is an unparalleled destination for outdoor adventurers.
📹 24 Hours In Indiana Dunes National Park (Hiking, Dunes, Historic Homes & the Chicago Skyline)
The Indiana Dunes are a national park on the northern border of Indiana, along the shoreline of Lake Michigan. There is so much …
Can you drink at Indiana Dunes?
The National Park Service permits the responsible consumption of alcohol at Indiana Dunes National Park, with the exception of NPS-owned buildings and the beach. It should be noted that ascents of considerable steepness are prohibited on all trails, and that glass containers are not permitted on the beach.
Is it safe to swim at Indiana Dunes?
Swimming in large, crashing waves is not recommended due to potential rip currents. Lifeguards are stationed at West Beach and swimming beach in Indiana Dunes State Park during summer months. With nine beaches and coastline, enjoying the shores should not come at the cost of safety. Staying updated on beach safety and closures is crucial. Volunteer drop-in opportunities are available for everyone, and the Indiana Dunes offers outdoor adventures shaped by nature. Outdoor adventures in the Indiana Dunes are fun and tan lines-worthy.
Why can’t you swim at Indiana Dunes?
Indiana Dunes State Park has nine beaches and a coastline, offering various activities for visitors. However, safety should not be compromised. To stay informed about beach closures and safety, visitors can follow these tips. Additionally, the park offers volunteer drop-in opportunities for everyone, allowing them to participate without a hassle. Outdoor adventures in the Indiana Dunes are designed for fun times and tan lines, with the park being shaped by nature and made for adventure.
Why are Indiana Dunes famous?
Octave Chanute, a French engineer, was the Grandfather of Flight, who pioneered the invention of the airplane. He conducted flying tests at Miller Beach, where he designed and built gliders that successfully flew along Lake Michigan shores in 1896. Chanute’s experiments inspired Orville and Wilbur Wright, and he was enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1963. The historic Aquatorium at Marquette Park and Beach, located at the site of the original experiments, honors Chanute and the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American military aviators in the United States Armed Forces.
What is the Indiana Dunes called?
Indiana Dunes National Park is a U. S. national park located in northwestern Indiana, managed by the National Park Service. It covers 15, 349 acres and was authorized by Congress in 1966 as the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The park’s conservation scheme is enhanced by the older Indiana Dunes State Park. The eastern area is along the lakefront, between Michigan City and the Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant, while the western area is along the shoreline south to U. S. 12 between the Burns Ditch west to Broadway in downtown Gary, Indiana.
There is little evidence of permanent Native American communities forming during earlier years, but evidence suggests that seasonal hunting camps were the norm. The earliest evidence for permanent camps was the occupation of the Ohio valley by the Hopewell culture. Five groups of mounds have been documented in the dunes area, consistent with the period of 200 BCE (Goodall Focus) to 800 CE (early Mississippian).
In the 1500s, European exploration and trade introduced more changes to the human environment, leading to tribal animosities and traditional European competition. Entire populations began moving westward, while others sought to dominate large geographic trading areas. The dunes became a middle point on journeys from the east or the west, remaining a key hunting ground for villages over a wide area.
It wasn’t until the 19th century that native villages were scattered through the area, followed by European settlement. Joseph Bailly was the earliest recorded settler in the dunes, moving from trading villages around Niles, Michigan, and joining other settlers, including Chesterton, Porter, Tremont, and the Town of the Pines.
What are two facts about the Indiana Dunes?
Indiana Dunes, one of North America’s most biologically diverse places, is home to over 350 bird species, over 1, 100 flowering plant species, and ferns, including bog plants, native prairie grasses, white pines, and rare forms of algae. The park supports numerous wildlife species, including white-tailed deer, beavers, racoons, southern flying squirrels, Norway rats, little brown bats, chipmunks, rabbits, and red foxes. Over 70 fish, 60 butterflies, 23 reptiles, and 18 amphibians have been identified.
The park’s diverse habitats support various wildlife species, including white-tailed deer, beavers, racoons, southern flying squirrels, Norway rats, chipmunks, rabbits, and red foxes. The National Park Conservation Association (NPCA) and its partners are working to restore native habitats for these species within the park and surrounding areas.
What are the dunes called?
A worldwide inventory of deserts has been developed using Landsat satellite images and space and aerial photography. It defines five basic types of dunes: crescentic, linear, star, dome, and parabolic. The most common dune form on Earth and Mars is the crescentic, which is wider than long and forms under winds from one direction. Some types of crescentic dunes move faster over desert surfaces than any other type. The largest crescentic dunes on Earth are in China’s Taklimakan Desert.
Linear dunes are straight or slightly sinuous sand ridges, typically much longer than they are wide and may be over 160 kilometers long. They may form sets of parallel ridges separated by miles of sand, gravel, or rocky interdune corridors. Some linear dunes merge to form Y-shaped compound dunes and form in bidirectional wind regimes.
Star dunes are pyramidal sand mounds with slipfaces on three or more arms that radiate from the high center of the mound. They tend to accumulate in areas with multidirectional wind regimes and grow upward rather than laterally. Star dunes dominate the Grand Erg Oriental of the Sahara and may be the tallest dunes on Earth in the southeast Badain Jaran Desert of China.
Is Indiana Dunes an actual national park?
The Indiana Dunes National Park and Indiana Dunes State Park, located 25 miles east along the south shore of Lake Michigan, welcome nearly four million guests annually to their sandy beaches and beautiful trails. The landscapes along the southern shores of Lake Michigan are some of the most biologically diverse in the nation, with over 350 bird species, hundreds of animal species, and over 1, 400 species of ferns and flowering plants. Visitors can enjoy family camping trips, ecological studies, or relaxing days at the beach.
Is Indiana Dunes man-made?
The Indiana Dunes, a series of massive sand mounds reaching an elevation of nearly 200 feet, were formed over the course of 14, 000 years by the passage of glaciers through the region. Despite their intrinsic aesthetic appeal, the dunes are inextricably linked to industrial activity, particularly steel production.
Is Indiana Dunes a beach or lake?
The Indiana Dunes National Park offers fifteen miles of sandy beach along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, providing a variety of recreational activities. The beach is open daily from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm, except for West Beach and Porter Beach, which close at 9:00 pm. Beach parking lots are available with potable water and restrooms, and West Beach has locker rooms, showers, and lifeguards from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend. Lifeguards are on duty between 10:00 am and 6:00 pm, including equipment setup and takedown.
What are 5 interesting facts about Indiana?
Indiana, the 19th state to join the Union, has a population of 6. 8 million and is distinguished by its blue and gold colors, a chapel within its Capitol, the motto “The Crossroads of America,” and an official state seal. The state flower is the peony, which was adopted in 1957, and the state bird is the cardinal, which was adopted by the 1933 Indiana General Assembly. The state is currently ranked 17th in the nation.
📹 Indiana Dunes National Park – Top Things To Do | Should It Really Be A National Park?
Hi, i’m Marc! I operate this YouTube channel in which I produce content related to National Parks and natural beauty of the world.
As a native of California who has lived in Northern Indiana for the last 22 years, it was fun to see your article from your visit to Indiana’s only national park. No one would ever confuse this park with some of the more impressive parks such as Yosemite, etc. but I find the dunes fun to hike over, and you can walk along the beach for a long, long ways. There are several large dunes on Lake Michigan. Warren Dunes in Michigan are not too far from Indiana Dunes. Further up north you can visit Sleeping Bear Dunes, which I believe are the largest on Lake Michigan. Obviously, the park is more comfortable to visit in warmer weather, but I also find it fun to see the lake in winter when it’s frozen over. Thanks for sharing another one of your fantastic articles!
Definitely come in other seasons. I am a Biology prof at the University of Indianapolis and one of my colleagues takes students up there annually. The park is extremely biodiverse. The nature of the topography means that you have many ecosystems in a very small area. There are some other restricted areas like Pinhook Bog that in spring/summer that are home to a fantastic array of orchids and insect-eating pitcher and sundew plants. Botanically many very limited populations of endangered plants and animals.
What many people don’t know is that Indiana Dunes comprises both a national park and a state park. The national park covers the beach, dunes, wetlands, prairies, and historical areas, so there’s actually a lot to see. It may not be on par with, say, Yellowstone or Yosemite, but it is definitely worth a visit in the warmer months. The Dune Succession Trail (the one with all the stairs) is my favorite because you get to see the evolution of the dunes. Fun fact–there is actually a species of cactus native to the area and southeast Chicago. Not the place you’d expect to find cactus to grow, but the sandy soil and unique environment allow it.
Hi Josh.. I found your website not to long ago and as a traveler myself I really enjoy your articles. I love how you include your family. We need more of that in this day and age. The articles with your dad are just so heart warming I just love. Thank you again for all your hard work and sharing your wonderful experiences with us.
I grew up in the area and now live in Indianapolis. Whenever I am home I’m there in the mornings. Lakeview, back in the day, was a casino and later on was a restaurant called the Red Lantern. If you ever eat at Hammer’s in town youre eating with the family that owned the restaurant. Some of the best experiences are walking all of the old roads that are still littered through the dunes. At one time the area was full of cottages which are now mostly gone. I’m partial because Ive been walking those dunes for the better part of my life. Its like all of the other parks. It has a unique natural and human history which are just as interesting and entertaining.
I don’t think our experiences could have been any different: I was there on a HOT day and it seemed like every resident of the upper-Midwest was there to cool off. Parking was crazy, beaches were full, and the traffic out at closing time was basically a standstill. Glad you helped us see it on a quiet day!
So sorry the weather wasn’t your friend on this day to Indiana Dunes. The park is actually a gem, though it will never make anyone’s list of the top half of our national parks. On a nice spring or fall weekday, when there aren’t a ton of people crowding the beaches, you can go for some wonderfully long and diverse hikes thru both the national park and the state park. What most visitors never realize is that this is one of the most biologically diverse terrains in the entire country. If you ever get back to Indiana for more hiking and exploring, I’ll be happy to share some specific trails and other places to visit! Thanks for ALL your amazing articles and all the time invested in them.
It’s a bummer that the weather was so bad for your visit but glad you still enjoyed the park! If you ever get back and have time for a longer hike, I highly recommend Cowles Bog trail. Indiana Dunes is one of the few national parks that is very dog friendly which is important to me. If you’re a bit of a masochist, you could also pop over to Indiana Dunes State Park and do the 3 Dune Challenge. Only 1.5 miles but some of the hardest deep sand dune climbing you will ever do!
Great article! I would suggest to you as a possible road trip with your Pops to do the Lake Michigan Circle Tour. As the name implies, it’s a route that takes you around the entire lake. There are sites online that give you turn by turn directions (although we deviated a bit in some spots). I just did it with my mom and we loved it. Lots of scenery, especially in the UP of Michigan and northern lower Michigan, including even bigger dunes than the ones at Indiana Dunes NP, a bunch of state parks, and a lot of cool lighthouses. The lake water is so much cleaner up north, at times it almost looks like the Caribbean. Door County in Wisconsin was amazing as well, and crossing the Mackinac Bridge is an experience in itself!
As a Midwesterner with plenty of Californian friends, it takes something special for you to go out the Dunes on a rainy day in the off-season, and still find something positive and encouraging to say about every site you visited. Your delight was contagious. I haven’t been to the Indiana Dunes yet, and to be honest, I’ve always been a bit of a snob about it. In Michigan we have the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, which are both larger and better preserved, and we (or at least I) felt a bit slighted when Indiana Dunes got the nod for the “national park” title. Sleeping Bear is astonishingly gorgeous yearround, but I am starting to think that I’ve maybe been unfair to the Indiana Dunes. From what I have read, the ranger programming is absolutely superb. Maybe even more importantly, natural preservation so close to a massive city, and with so many competing commercial and industrial interests, is a herculean achievement. articles like this make me very excited to visit the Indiana Dunes!
My son and I made a quick stop here in early June on our cross-country trip. We hiked the Cowles Bog Trail. We were all alone on trail, so that was nice. Lots of different ecosystems along the way. Climbing the dunes will get your heart pumping (no stairs there!) The lake views were nice. All in all, it was a pleasant way to spend a morning, but nothing to go out of your way for, in my opinion.
I’m a native of north west Indiana thank you for bringing attention to some of the best natural beauty we have to offer sadly the industrial stuff is an eye sore but we still preserved some beauty there was an even bigger sand dune bigger then mount baldy but it was taken down for sand if I remember correctly
Cowles Bog is my favorite trail at Indiana Dunes. Something that might fit your style would be a road trip of Lake Michigan dunes from Indiana Dunes to Warren Dunes to Saugatuck Dunes to Holland and Grand Haven to Silver Lake Sand Dunes (only place east of the Mississippi where you can drive on dunes) to Nordhouse Dunes to iconic M-22 and Sleeping Bear Dunes. Just a thought.
We looove your website! Awesome to see you visit Indiana Dunes! We live in Chicago and love the Dunes. The Paul H Douglas Trail is a great all-seasons trail and they have some great snowshoeing. Strenuous but a great workout and fun views. Sorry you had a very wet day at the Dunes.. you’re a trooper!
Hi👋🏽Josh… I missed Pops not being with you. Beverly Shores…what a nice😂name for that area of the park…it was fun perusal…even with the rain…wind and cold you had a good time anyway…the private homes are gorgeous. my only complaint…no food or restaurant segments…and the article wasn’t long enough…it’s always relaxing listening to you. 🙏🏽TFS another Great Trip with us.
Its a good idea to stick to the trails, climbing on high bluffs there are spots where ancient trees that were buried by the moving dunes have rotted away creating a void that will suck you down into the dune, it has happened more than once in this particular dune area. If you want the park to yourself at Sleeping Bear or Indiana dunes Dec- April you will pretty much have the place to yourself, for snow shoeing, cross-country skiing, hiking, hunting is allowed in Michigan dunes, you may see deer hunters from Oct-Dec. The weather is usually the nicest from June – September, but expect more people. Indiana dunes actually has a native cactus, and some small cactus plants were discovered living on rocks in the higher elevations of the western upper peninsula of Michigan.
Believe it or not, you can see cactus plants on the entrance road into West Beach. They are not your typical cacti you would see out west, as they are only very small and are low to the ground. If I’m not mistaken, the ecosystem of the Indiana Dunes is more diverse with its flora and fauna than most of the larger national parks. It really is a wonderful ecosystem, with a great history. Most of the larger dunes were mined with the sand shipped to Chicago for its development. And the marshes at West beach had once been used to harvest ice to send to Chicago.
You miss seeing the farm. They restored an old working farm that used to supply milk to Chicago. It would get there on the train. Too bad they lost funding and no longer have a ranger to take care of the animals. When I took my students out there over 10 years ago, the ranger let them heard the chickens into the chicken coop for the night. The chickens didn’t want to go in and it was so funny to see the kids herding them with little wooden paddles. Took forever. The kids also like to see the goat that would stand on the cow’s back. And one year the cow had a little calf
I’ve only done that last trail to the beach never found the visitor center. But I’m Glad to see it exists at the other locations. I only saw that small concession stand by the beach. The whole time I was thinking to myself the Indiana dunes state park is so much nicer. My wife hates hiking carry the toddler in sand so probably not going back anytime soon because Turkey runn wins over sand.
I generally find a trail less than five miles is not worthy of serious effort. With that consideration, I find the Indiana Dune’s State Park most satisfying. If you start at the Pavilion, take trail 2 to trail 10 and loop back around to the Pavilion, it equals about 12 glorious scenic miles of board walk, wet lands, dunes, forests and beach front. It is one of my favorite hikes of the area.
We visited this park back in June. While it is probably my next to least favorite National Park, it still is a great park. We had an absolute amazing time but our weather was much better than yours, beautiful blue sky with amazing views of Chicago all the way to the Century of Progress Homes. I will say for me, I loved West Beach Dune Succession Trail, as you said so well the stairs are better than the sand. However, the best thing to do in the park is the Cowles Bog Trial. In the summer it is a great hike across a black oak savanna over the dunes hiking in the sand. You get great views of Chicago as well as a chance to see the parks wide diversity of flora. It is the best hike if not activity in the park.
Great article! Checking out your Olympic NP for a visit this year. Right next to the national park is the Indiana Dunes State Park. They have great trails to do all year around. Trail #9 is a favorite. Walk to the top of dune with a great view of the lake! There’s also a 3Dune Challenge at the state park where you do the 3 tallest dunes on a trail
Thanks Josh for the article. But my honest question is: Why is this place a National Park??? Even the National Park Service didn’t want it to become a National Park! See this paragraph from Wikipedia: “A bill to reclassify Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore as Indiana Dunes National Park was sponsored by Representative Pete Visclosky and Senators Todd Young and Mike Braun and previously by Senator Joe Donnelly, who wanted to bring the site more recognition. Deputy Director of the National Park Service Paul Daniel Smith testified that the Service opposed the redesignation because it would be inconsistent with the Service’s naming conventions and the Indiana Dunes have more in common with other national lakeshores and seashores than national parks, which are typically much larger.(1” It being classified as a National Park just waters down the whole system of classifying the Parks. It has some interesting features but should have just been kept a National Lakeshore. I can only conclude it was due to politics and not a real consideration of the designation of what “National Park” means. There must be a thousand locations around the rest of the country, specifically the West that deserves it more than this place, imho.
The reason why I have no positive feedback about this park is the industrial area near the park! That scenery is totally ruining the whole scenery personally. My perspective of the national park or any similar parks is those parks are away from civilization and how isolated they are from them(like city noises, smokes, lights and etc)
The Indiana Dunes in its current form is a small piece of what it was originally supposed to be. It was to be one of the first National Park as it was in the process of being protected, but WWI put the process on hold, As a result industry came in and took huge chunks of the lakeshore, along with residential development. The state of Indiana carved out a piece of this area for the State Park, and the National Park Service being late to the party, took the remaining scraps.
Michigan and Wisconsin have hundreds of miles of Lake Michigan lake shore. Of the small part that’s in Indiana, Industry got to keep their share of it. Wealthy communities got to keep theirs. The park system took the rest of the Indiana dunes away from the people. The Dunes State park was enough park. I remember it before the National lake shore.
No, this is not National Park worthy. We were there late September 2023. It was our 45th NP. The entire time I was there the fumes from the steel mills and power plants burned my nose and eyes. You climb the touted Mt Baldy only to turn your head right and realize you’re very close to the cooling tower of a power plant. Sure there is biodiversity in the plant life, but seriously there are better examples of dunes and ponds along the Michigan shoreline. Even the NPS didn’t support the designation change. This was a political gift to a Vice President.