Foliage: Indiana Dunes National Park is in northwest Indiana along the shores of Lake Michigan. The shoreline in this area of the park is large trees and ground foliage. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Shifting Sand: Sand dunes are dynamic and always shifting. Shown is a fire hydrant on a street just off the beach collecting shifting sands for quite a while. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
By GARY WARREN
Photographer
Formerly of Los Alamos
The Indiana Dunes National Park is one our country’s newest national parks. Formerly known as Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, the park was upgraded to our 61st National Park in February 2019. The purpose of the park is to preserve the beautiful dunes and lakeshore along Lake Michigan in northwest Indiana and prevent the area from being developed.
Most national parks have a specific entrance, or multiple entrances if size allows, and the entire park is contained within a boundary of land which is exclusively a part of the park and falls with the National Park Service jurisdiction. Indiana Dunes is unique because it consists of multiple parcels of land along the lake shore that are interrupted by villages, a state park, and even some industrial areas. There are no entrance gates at Indiana Dunes as roads and state highways pass through the park at different areas. Overall, Indiana Dunes National Park lies along the lakeshore for about 15 miles, but the boundary is not continuous.
Indiana Dunes National Park offers a variety of activities. The beaches on the lake shore of Lake Michigan are the most obvious and most visited of the park’s activities. There are day use areas for picnicking, the park boasts miles of hiking and biking trails, and there is a campground within the park. There is an abundance of wildlife and birds within the park as well. Birding is especially popular during migratory seasons as the park lies in the path of many migratory birds. Fishing in Lake Michigan is another popular activity at the park.
Our stay at Indiana Dunes in June was brief but we wanted to see this new national park and get an idea of what it offered to visitors. We loved exploring the lakeshore in many areas, but we were surprised to find that its boundaries are so unique and spaced out over several miles and mixed with other entities. When back in the area, we would like to spend more time and see the park is more detail.
Editor’s note: Longtime Los Alamos photographer Gary Warren and his wife Marilyn are traveling around the country and he is been sharing his photographs, which appear in the ‘Posts from the Road’ series published in the Sunday edition of the Los Alamos Daily Post.
Beaches: There are several beaches scattered along the shoreline within the park’s boundaries. We visited the park in early June and visitors were happy to be outdoors and on the beach. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Dunes: Some of the sand dunes are smaller but many rise to heights of 200 feet. Shown are visitors running and moving about on a sand dune. The dunes rise from the beach and continue inland where they become covered by trees and foliage. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Lake Michigan: Beach goers enjoy the nice weather at Indiana Dunes National Park in June. Beautiful Lake Michigan stretches as far as the eye can see from the shores in northern Indiana. This popular shoreline and beaches are visited by more than 3 million visitors every year. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Rocky Lakeshore: Not all the shoreline in Indiana Dunes National Park is sandy beaches. The diverse shoreline is very forested in some areas and rocky in some areas as seen in this photo. The park stretches for about 15 miles within three counties in northwest Indiana. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
