June 2020

The Indiana Dunes National Park runs for nearly 45 miles along the southern shore of Lake Michigan and is the newest U.S. national park. Formerly the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, it was designated as a national park in February 2019. Indiana Dunes State Park is located within the national park boundary so I will also include our trip there in this entry. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the visitors center was closed but we were able to get a park map from a tent set up outside and we saw most of the park by biking and hiking since all the trails were open. The beautiful wolf mural was on display outside of the visitors center.

On Tuesday morning we packed a lunch, loaded up the bikes and drove to the Mineral Springs Road parking area within the national park with our friends John and Ana. It was my first long day of riding on my new ebike and I loved it! We rode about 25 miles along the Prairie Duneland Trail. It was mostly flat but there were a couple of steep overpasses where my electric assist really came in handy 🙂  As you can see, they have not changed all of the signage yet to reflect the change to a national park.

We rode through the Bailly Homestead first settled in 1822. Unfortunately before Mr. Bailly could move into his grand house, he fell ill and died in 1835.

We ate our lunch by a cute old house and then stopped for a cold drink on our way back to the parking lot at the end of the day.

The next morning John, Jake (the dog), Ana and I went on a hike on the Cowles Bog Trail. It is a 5 mile loop covering ponds, marches, swamps, black oak savannas and beaches. A couple of steep sand dunes near Lake Michigan made this a great workout! It was so nice to have someone to hike with.

On our final day together we parked at the NP visitors center and rode our bikes into Indiana Dunes State Park, located within the national park boundary. The line of cars trying to get into the park was at least an hour’s wait so we were happy to be able to peddle in. We rode our bikes a couple of miles into the park and then stopped at the beach for a stroll along the shore. This was a popular spot on a hot day with little regard for social distancing.

 

This is a worthwhile national park to visit if you are in the area!