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Published: July 27th 2023
I love typing out that title! Indiana Dunes is officially a national park! I grew up going to the Indiana Dunes, as the dunes are a common beach destination for people living in the Chicago area. We always went to the state park and camped if we were staying overnight. The Gatehouse is still there and has restrooms and some snack food. On either side of the state park used to be a national lakeshore. In February 2019, it became a national park! The national park makes a U shape around the state park, with most of it on the east side of the state park. To the west of the state park, there is still some private development and even a steel mill, so those sections of the national park aren't as nice. I recommend staying around the state park or go east of there, unless there is something specific you want to see or do!
We've taken the kids to the Indiana Dunes twice before,
once in 2014 and
once in 2018. During both of those trips, we stayed at Riley's Railhouse in Chesterton, Indiana. We loved staying at the old train station, but we were looking to spend less this trip
and ended up at the Fairfield in New Buffalo, Michigan. The hotel isn't as nice, and this part of town isn't as charming (our immediate area has two chain hotels, a McDonald's, and a Subway), but sometimes you just need a place to stay.
Today was the first time we've been back to the dunes since it had become a national park. So, we started our trip at the national park visitor's center. There were some helpful, friendly rangers there who were asking people if they needed any help planning what to see. We got our cancellation stamps and decided to buy a national park visitor's pass while we were there for $25. After you purchase your pass, you just put it on your car dash. This purchase ended up really benefiting us later!
The dunes near the beach are the ones I always hiked up as a kid. Some of them are quite sandy ("blowout" dunes), and you can run down them towards the beach and have a great time. Today, we decided to explore something different and hiked up Tolleston Dunes, which are forested dunes set back from the beach areas. It was OK. These dunes
are more stable and are better for the ecosystem, but they appear to us as ordinary hills. However, there were some areas with wildflowers and butterflies, so it was pretty enough. I'm glad we went hiking before it was too hot. Next time we come, I think we'll try the Dunes Succession Trail (Diana of the Dunes Dare). We didn't check it out today because we were ready for the beach! Our plan was to try getting to the beach access from the national park at Porter Beach. We remember parking being very limited there, so if we couldn't get parking, we'd drive around and pay for parking at the state beach.
When we arrived at Porter Beach at 11:30am Eastern/10:30am Central, there was one car in front of us. A ranger was at the parking lot and spoke with them and directed them out and towards the visitor's center. When we pulled up, he noted how we were ready with our car pass. He told us we were in luck because there was only one parking spot left! If we didn't have our national park receipt, we wouldn't have gotten the spot. Again, it wouldn't have been a
huge deal if we couldn't park there, as we could have parked at the state park beach where there are hundreds of spots. However, I was excited to be technically in the national park this time! So, we parked in the small lot, and I used the restroom there. There are two stalls in each restroom, and there is also a foot cleaning spigot outside the restroom. The restrooms are definitely bigger over at the state beach, but there are fewer people here, so it evens out. Then, we set up a spot with our towels in front of the lake. It's so blue and so big. Joanna asked if it was the ocean. I told her no, it's Lake Michigan, and reminded her that a lot of people don't understand just how big the Great Lakes really are. The Great Lakes hold over 20% of the world's surface fresh water. We've been on Lake Superior before at a point where you can't see land on any side of you. It's water as far as you can see in any direction! Here on the shore of Lake Michigan (the only Great Lake that is entirely within the United States), there
Indiana Dunes National Park
We're at Porter Beach, part of the national park, looking towards the Indiana Dunes State Park beach. They're right next to each other.is no way you could see to the other side of the lake. We'd be looking from the state of Indiana up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, a distance of 300 miles! There's so much fresh water; it's an extremely important resource. Some people snub the idea of the Indiana Dunes being a national park, but, if anything, I think there should be more national parks along the Great Lakes' lakeshores. Plus, it's beautiful. The sand is very fine, almost like purchasing a bag of good sand for a sandbox, but it's natural. In terms of the sand, it's among the best sand beaches I've been to anywhere. A lot of ocean beaches are rocky and gritty!
The water was very calm today with almost no waves. We spent two hours there, swimming, exploring, skipping rocks, and relaxing on the sand. I commented that I wish we had a beach umbrella to have some shade, but we ended up spending so much time in the water that we were OK without. Just don't forget your sunscreen! We applied and reapplied and still got some sun, but we didn't get any major burns, thankfully. The kids had a great
time in the water, and I love seeing the kids enjoying themselves on vacation. Oliver ventured so far out into the water that we had to tell him not to go past the buoys! The beach excursion was a really nice way to wrap up our trip.
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