Visiting Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

Hey everyone!

So in addition to Warren Dunes State Park, my family and I also visited Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore while they were here! Indiana Dunes is located in Indiana, duh, on the small strip of Lake Michigan coast line that Indiana can lay claim to. It's intermixed like a potluck (here a little, there a little, etc.) with industry and the ever-reaching urban extensions of Chicago. So while I never felt like, "ahhhh....I'm in a national park" sort of relief that I do when I go to the Smokies or Mammoth Cave, I still did have a very fun time with my family exploring what the park had to offer. I was excited to visit Indiana Dunes as it is a national park (yay stamp!!), plus it looked like there were some pretty cool things there - beach, trails, old pioneer homes to name a few. Sounded like a recipe for a good time to me! :D

Anyway, the first place we went was West Beach. West Beach is a popular beach at the park (duh) and I'm happy we got there early because it really filled up fast. Spent a few seconds admiring the beach and lake, then onto what we really came there to do...hike the half-mile or so long dune succession trail. Basically, a long fancy name for a boardwalk trail that goes over dunes. You know that little kids song?

"Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we'll go!"

Well, the Indiana Dunes version would run,

"Over the sand dunes and through the traffic..." (remember this park is basically right next to the edges of Chicago) :P

The nice thing was though that the stairs were very sturdy (even though there were tons of them), lots of handrails were in place (thank you NPS!), and there were several benches and overlooks (yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayy!! ;) ). Actually I really enjoyed the view out towards Lake Michigan.

It was also fun see the different sand dunes and learn all that scientific stuff about ecology, succession, and the like (thanks for reading that brochure, Mom!). But I'm just sayin'...I definitely got my exercise!! ;) Still lots of fun to be with my family out in nature.

Hands down, though, what I enjoyed the most about West Beach was that on the paved trail out to the beach, there were lots and lots and lots of pretty wildflowers!! I had so much fun taking photos.

 I loved these purple flowers!!

 Oh, and if you wanted to see what the beach/lake looked like! ;) It's nice, but in my opinion doesn't hold a candle to Warren Dunes. This one is much smaller and more crowded.

Next we visited the visitor center for lunch and to grab that stamp, and there were even more wildflowers adorning the grounds of the visitor center! Seriously, our family spent more time outside taking pictures of the flowers than inside enjoying the exhibits. Hey, nothing wrong with that! ;)

 Yellow is my favorite color and so these black-eyed susans were definitely among my favorites! Just absolutely loved all the brilliant splashes of color they made!!

 The end.