Where to see wildlife at Indiana Dunes park

A beaver on a pond off the Paul H. Douglas Trail. NPS photo.

Despite sitting in a built-up area at the edge of the nation’s third largest urban area, there’s plenty of wildlife to be seen at Indiana Dunes National Park.

Two trails that particularly stand out for spotting wildlife are:
• Paul H. Douglas Trail – The 3.2-miles trail (formerly the Miller Woods Trail) passes a wetlands, oak savanna, towering sand dunes, and ends at a Lake Michigan beach. Among the animals that can be seen along the trail are beaver, cottontail rabbit, coyote, eastern mole, fox squirrel, gray squirrel, long-tailed weasel, masked shrew, meadow vole, muskrat, prairie deer mouse, raccoon, red squirrel, short-tailed shrew, thirteen-lined ground squirrel, Virginia opossum, white-footed mouse, and white-tailed deer. Park at the Douglas Center for Environmental Education off of North Lake Street north of U.S. Hwy. 12.
• Tolleston Dunes Trail – Another good trail to catch them is this 2.6-mile route, which traverses a variety of ecosystems, including rolling sand dunes formed 4700 years ago when Lake Michigan’s water level was about 25 feet higher and so reached this far inland. Among the wildlife here are cottontail rabbits, garter snakes, opossums, raccoons, red fox, squirrels and white-tailed deer. Look to the sky, and you’re likely to see great blue herons, hawks, mallards, turkey vultures, and a range of songbirds. The trail starts at the parking lot off of Hwy. 12 just west of Hillcrest Road neat Ogden Dunes.
• Also see blog entries on Indiana Dunes’ birding trails.