Explore forest trails at Indiana Dunes park

The Hobart Woodland Trail is dirt-packed jeep trail through a hardwood forest.
Photo courtesy of Indiana Dunes NPS.

Say “Indiana Dunes National Park,” and most people will think of Lake Michigan beaches and sand dunes. But various forests – from Midwest hardwoods to a jack pinery – also can be found there.

The best trails to explore the national park’s forests include:
• Calumet Dunes Paved Trail – The 0.5-miles loop heads through a hardwood forest on its way to sand dunes. Among the dominant trees are eastern black oak, white oak, sugar maple, dogwood, and yellow poplar, making for colorful fall foliage. If walking the trail clockwise, always veer right at each junction. The wheelchair accessible path connects with the Glenwood Dunes Trail and the Dunewood Trace Campground Trail. Park in the lot for the trail off of East 300 Road south of U.S. Hwy. 12.
• Dune Succession Trail – While much of the trail focuses on how the dunes evolve over time, one segment of the 1-mile trail heads through a jack pinery. The jack pines here are much farther south than they should be in the Great Lakes, and are remnants of when they flourished in the area at the end of the last ice age, when the climate was much cooler. In the pinery, you’ll also see cottonwood, red cedar, common juniper, and the bearberry bush. Park in a lot at the end of West Beach Road north of U.S. Hwy. 12.
• Glenwood Dunes Trail – Day hikers can walk through a classic Midwestern hardwood forest on this 2.8-miles lollipop trail that formerly was known as the Ly-co-ki-we Trail. Among the dominant trees are eastern black oak, white oak, sugar maple, dogwood, and yellow poplar, which make for spectacular fall colors. Park in the lot off of North Brummit Road/School House Road north of U.S. Hwy. 20.
• Hobart Woodland Trail – The 2.2-miles trail runs through forested ravines and a bur oak savanna as well as passes Lake George in the Hobart Prairie Grove System, which is disconnected from the main park. The best way to access the trail is to park at Robinson Lake Park lot off of Liverpool Road south of West 49th Avenue southwest of Hobart, Ind., then hike the Oak Savannah rail trail east for just under a half mile. The packed dirt Hobart Woodland Trail heads south from the Oak Savannah Trail.

When not to take kids hiking in certain areas

Avoid desert hikes during summer and the wet season.

As selecting a trail to day hike with children, you can eliminate those in certain regions when specific weather conditions prevail:
g Coastlines – Always check local tide tables if walking along beaches and coastlines, as you don’t want to get stranded in the ocean or large lake by rising water.
g Cold climates – Winter and spring will be chilly and often wet.
g Deserts – Avoid them during the wet seasons as flash floods can occur, sweeping down sandy washes and canyons, leaving you stranded, wet, or worse drowned. Outside of the wet season, avoid any days in which rain, high wind, and hot temperatures are forecast. This makes summer a bad time for desert hiking. Late autumn and early spring usually are the best times to hike deserts.
g Forests – Spring usually is a wet season to avoid. Summer and autumn make for the best hiking.
g High altitudes – Whenever high winds, precipitation and cold temperatures are forecast at lower elevations, they will be worse in the mountains. Winter, early spring and late autumn are dangerous times to hike high mountains. Low mountains and hilly country are best hiked on pleasant spring days; late summer is best for high mountains.

Read more about day hiking with children in my guidebook Hikes with Tykes.