Day trails explore prairies at Indiana Dunes

Mnoké Prairie during the fall at Indiana Dunes National Park. NPS photo.

Prior to the arrival of settlers from the East Coast and Europe, about 1 in every 7 acres of Indiana was prairieland. Agriculture, drainage and urbanization quickly decimated the prairies, and by the end of the 20th century, only a few pristine remnants remained.

Fortunately, some of those parcels – as well as new efforts at restoring prairie – can be found at Indiana Dunes National Park.

Three prairies that day trails explore at the park include:
• Mnoké Prairie – Indiana sits in a zone where the Eastern forests give way to the grassy Great Plains of the West. While oak savannas made up much of the area’s meadows in that transition, swaths of tallgrass prairie did exist in the Hoosier state. Most were converted to farmland once settlers arrived. Recently, a tallgrass prairie was restored near the historic Bailly and Chellberg farm. You can walk the edge of it on the first segment of the Little Calumet River Trail; park in the lot at the end of of Howe Road south of Oak Hill Road and head west on the trail until coming the river bridge for a 1.8-mile round trip.
• Dune Ridge black oak savanna – Before Euro-American settlers arrived, black oak savannas were among the Midwest’s most common ecosystems. Today, less than .02% of oak savanna remains. They still can be seen at Indiana Dunes, though; one great route for walking through them is the 0.7-mile Dune Ridge Trail, a lollipop trail near Beverly Shores, Ind. Park in the lot off of East State Park Road north of U.S. Hwy. 12.
• Hoosier Prairie – A great way to explore the different types of prairies is the Prairie Marsh and Savannah trails, located in Hoosier Prairie Nature Preserve. The 0.8-mile hike consists of a stem and two connected loops in a 1547-acre area being restored and protected by a variety of agencies from the U.S. and Indiana governments to private nature preservation organizations. Pick up the trail from the parking lot off of Main Street east of Kennedy Avenue in Griffith, Ind.

Six Great National Parks to See Wildlife

Bison can be found on Yellowstone National Park's Lamar Valley Trail.

The following article was written for and originally appeared in the August 2016 Coach.net newsletter:

America’s national parks are known for their great vistas and fantastic rock formations, but they also preserve another treasure: wildlife.

In fact, national parks rank among the best places to see interesting and rare wildlife. Late summer marks a particularly good time for wildlife viewing at many parks as most mothers bring out their young by that time of the year.

Given the breadth of national park locations, there’s also the opportunity to see almost every kind of North American wildlife, from those that live on mountains, in marine environments, and in the tropics to those that make their homes on prairies, deserts, and in temperate forests.

Mountains
Travelers can explore the “Serengeti of North America” on the Lamar Valley Trail at Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park. Like the mountain-ringed African plain, Lamar Valley serves as home to the classic megafauna that define North America. Bison, elk, grizzlies, black bears, wolves, coyotes, eagles, osprey and more all can be found at this high elevation. Coyotes also can be seen wandering about, looking for a meal while bald eagles and osprey grace the skies. Grizzlies reside in the hilly woods, but they and the area’s other big two predators – black bears and wolf packs – prefer to remain under cover than be seen.

Marine
You can encounter an array of marine wildlife on the Beach Trail at Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park. Low tide also provides an opportunity to see intertidal life. As the waters retreat into the ocean – and water levels here can fall 25 vertical feet, among the greatest extremes in the world – a number of animals and plants are exposed. Don’t be surprised to spot starfish and snails on the sands and grasses. On shore, a variety of sea birds gather and fly over, often nabbing exposed intertidal creatures for a meal. During those first moments of sunlight, watch for humpback whales, harbor porpoise, puffins, sea otters, and Steller sea lions, frolicking and feeding in the mouth of the bay. Bring binoculars. If lucky, you’ll also hear the blow of humpback whales.

Tropics
Tropical wildlife can be safely seen from the Anhinga Trail at Florida’s Everglades National Park. The trail’s boardwalk takes you over open water where you can watch for alligators peeking out of a river, as well as turtles, herons and egrets. Winter marks the best season to see the most wildlife. A number of birds spend their time in the Everglades after migrating from a northern clime. Among those you can spot are the double breasted cormorant, great egret, great blue heron, snowy egret, tricolored heron, white ibis and woodstork. Turkey vultures congregate in the marsh during the early morning hours.

Prairies
North America’s largest mammal – the bison – freely roams North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and the Buckhorn Trail is an excellent place to spot them and other Great Plains wildlife. The trail includes a prairie dog town that stretches for about a mile. You’ll be able to spot them barking from their burrow entrances as they keep an eye out for predators. Hawks, coyotes and rattlesnakes are among the creatures hoping to make an unsuspecting prairie dog its dinner.

Deserts
Four desert ecosystems can be found in North America, and the park closest to a major metro area offers among the best spots to see wildlife of these dry climes. Outside of Tucson, Ariz., Saguaro National Park’s Douglas Spring Trail crosses the Rincon Mountain District (Saguaro Park East), providing the chance to see coyotes, roadrunners, jackrabbits and quail. All four of those creatures thrive in the Sonoran Desert, which stretches across Arizona and northern Mexico, as well as good portions of the continent’s other three desert ecosystems.

Temperate forests
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, though stretching across the Appalachian Mountains, offers the opportunity to see many of the animals that reside in temperate forests covering much of the continent east of the Mississippi River. The Deep Creek/Indian Falls trails in the park’s North Carolina section sports Eastern cottontail rabbit, groundhogs, river otter, and white-tailed deer. Also present but much more elusive, as they keep to themselves, are black bear, bobcat, coyote, red fox, red wolf, and wild boar.

Rob Bignell is the author of several hiking guidebooks, including the bestselling Best Sights to See at America’s National Parks.

Learn more about national park day hiking trails in my Best Sights to See at America’s National Parks guidebook.