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.

Many great trails found near Indiana Dunes

Marquette Park beach with the downtown Chicago skyline in the distance.

Despite being urbanized, the area around Indiana Dunes National Park boasts a variety of great beaches, municipal or county parks, and other lengthy hiking trails.

These trails often allow you to escape the national park’s summer beach crowds while experiencing local life.

Among your best bets for day trails outside of the national park:
• Indiana Dunes State Park – The state park sits exactly in the middle of the national park on Lake Michigan’s shores. Its 2182 acres offers many of the same features – beachfront, dunes, forests, wetlands, and prairie/savanna habitat – and so also attracts an incredibly variety of birds. The mile-long Trail 2 circles the Great Marsh on a boardwalk so you can keep your feet dry. Among the birds you can spot are: Baltimore oriole; bay-breasted, blackburnian, Canada, golden-winged, hooded, Kirtland’s, and prairie warblers; blue jay; Louisiana waterthrush; scarlet tanager; and veery. A 3.5-mile round trip segment of Trail 10 passes two blowouts – an exposed area where wind moved sand from the dunes through an area of plants. The park's two largest blowouts – Beach House and Furnessville – are on this segment, which starts at the Pavilion and Bathhouse.
• Dune Nature Preserve – Technically the eastern two-thirds of the state park, the preserve includes three dunes known as The Tremonts: Mt. Tom, which tops out a 192 feet above lake level; Mt. Holden, 184 feet; and Mt. Jackson, 176 feet. The 1.5-mile long Trail 8 goes up and over each of the wooded Tremonts and runs from the Wilson Shelter to the Pavilion and Beach House.
• Iron Horse Heritage Trail – The 2.9-mile one-way gravel trail runs between Hamstrom Road and Indiana Hwy. 149/Max Mochal Road northeast of Portage, Ind. The best section is the eastern half, which runs along the edge of Portage Imagination County Park and a small lake.
• Marquette Park – A 1.4-mile white sand beach stretches along Lake Michigan at this Gary, Ind., park that is entirely surrounded by the national park. Formerly known as Lake Front Park, the area recently underwent a major $28 million overhaul. The beach is not a designated swimming area and is considered an Important Bird Area. Park in the city lots at the end of North Lake Street north of U.S. Hwy. 12.
• Oak Ridge Prairie and Savannah Trail – The 9.5-mile one-way former railway turned asphalt trail runs from Erie Lackawanna Trail at South Arbogast Avenue in Griffith, Ind., to the Prairie Duneland Trail at Hobart Road in Hobart. The end points definitely are better than the center, which crosses busy Interstate 65 and Indiana Hwy. 53.
• Oak Ridge Prairie County Park – Several short trails run through this public area in the Lake County park system. Try the 0.56-mile Lake Perimeter Trail, which circles a pond through woodlands and an open green. Pick up the trail from the lot at the end of the park entry road east of South Colfax Street near Griffith, Ind.
• Porter Brickyard Trail – The paved 3.5-mile one-way trail runs north to south with one end in the national park (trailhead is at 1184 North Mineral Springs Road) and the other outside the park at 198 S. Jackson Blvd. in Chesterton, Ind. Along the way, it passes the Bailly-Chellberg historic sites and in Chesterton connects to the Prairie Duneland Trail.
• Prairie Duneland Trail – The 11.2-mile one-way trail links downtown Hobart, Ind., (trailhead is at 4 North Hobart Road) to a trailhead in Chesterton at 198 S. Jackson Blvd. The grade is nil, and there are six smaller parking lots along the trail route should you want to do a shorter walk.
• Washington Park – The Michigan City, Ind., city park boasts a 2-mile long Lake Michigan beach and a small zoo featuring 90 different species on a 15-acre campus. Park in the lot at the end of the Park Entrance Road north of Lake Shore Drive.

Indiana Dunes offers great birding trails

A great blue heron along the Great Marsh Trail. NPS photo.

Among the best places to go birding in the upper Midwest is Indiana Dunes National Park. With its variety of ecosystems – from hardwood forests and wetlands to Lake Michigan beaches and towering dunes – the national park naturally attracts hundreds of bird species, especially during the spring and fall migrations.

Among the top park trails for birding are:
• Cowles Bog Trail – The trail, which traverses the edge of woodlands and marshes while heading through an oak savanna, was named a globally significant Important Bird Area. Its wetlands are a major nesting area for American bittern, American black duck., black-crowned night heron, little blue heron, marsh wren, sandhill crane, and Virginia rail. Other rare species that can spotted along the trail are the American woodcock, solitary sandpiper, rusty blackbird, sedge wren, and whip-poor-will.
• Great Marsh Trail – Day hikers can see a number of the famous birds drawn to the national park by hiking the 1.26-miles round trip Great Marsh Trail. Thanks to a recent restoration of the wetlands, migratory birds – including sandhill cranes and great blue herons – stop over there every spring and autumn. After only a few steps on the trail, you’ll be immediately impressed by the array of bird life in the Great Marsh. Coots, mallards, wood ducks and geese are abundant here. During the annual migrations, wading birds such as herons and egrets stalk the shorelines. Kingfishers, red-winged blackbirds, tree swallows, and warblers also are abundant.
• Heron Rookery Trail – For some six decades, more than a hundred great blue heron nests could be found in the tall sycamores along this 3.3-miles round trip trail at 600 East south of 1350 North. Though the herons have since abandoned the site, plenty of other birds can be spotted on this wooded portion of the East Arm Little Calumet River. Among them are kingfishers, kinglets, a number of migrating and nesting warbler species, woodpeckers and wood thrushes.
• West Beach Trail – Several migratory birds rarely seen in Indiana can be spotted on the West Beach Trail, which passes Long Lake and a Lake Michigan beach. An Important Bird Area, in late fall and winter, the common redpoll, long-eared owl and red crossbill can be spotted. The common loon and red-breasted merganser, red-throated loon, and western grebe also can be spotted here. Many raptors such as bald eagles, northern harriers, peregrine falcon, red-shouldered and sharp-shinned hawks also stop over here. Also keep an eye out for the hairy woodpecker. At the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk on West Beach’s east end, spring hawk flights over the high dunes are impressive, and during March and April, at the migration’s peak, up to 300 bird species can be seen on any given day.

Discover waterways crossing Indiana Dunes

East Arm Little Calumet River, located near the Bailly Homestead. NPS photo.

Only one river flows through Indiana Dunes National Park, but a couple of streams do make their way across the park, one as a tributary to the East Arm Little Calumet River and the other flowing directly into Lake Michigan.

Here are some great day trails to discover those waterways:
• Dunes Creek – The 4.3-mile stream drains the Great Marsh and then West Branch (which in turn drains Cowles Bog) passes through coastal sand dunes and flows into Lake Michigan at Indiana Dunes State Park. Good trails to experience the creek are the Calumet Bike Trail (between Tremont Road and East State Park Boundary Road) and Trail 2 in the state park.
• East Arm Little Calumet River – The 22.1-mile long waterway has greatly changed since the arrival of Euro-Americans. Before 1926, the stream used to connect to the Little Calumet River in Illinois, but that year construction of the Burns Waterway diverted the route so it drained into Lake Michigan at Burns Harbor in Indiana (which can explored at the Portage Lakefront & Riverwalk). One of the few undisturbed portions runs alongside the Little River Calumet Trail. Park in the lot at the end of Howe Road south of Oak Hill Road/County Road 1350 N. Take the trail 0.9-miles one way west to a bridge crossing the river as well as 0.3-miles east toward the Bailly Homestead.
• Salt Creek – This 24-mile tributary of the East Arm Little Calumet River flows north from Valparaiso, Ind. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources regularly stocks the creek with steelhead trout, Chinook salmon, and coho salmon. No park trails cross Salt Creek, but both the Iron Horse Heritage and the Prairie Duneland trails just south of the park do.

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.

Day trails explore Indiana Dunes marshes

A sandhill crane searches for food in the Great Marsh trail. NPS photo.

Among the most important features of Indiana Dunes National Park is its great number of wetlands.

While previous generations considered them wasteland that needed to be drained off, today we recognize that marshes support a large number of plants and animals, improve water quality, and reduce erosion and flooding. All of this makes them an interesting place to explore and to learn about our environment.

Bogs, fens and interdunal ponds dot the national park. Among the best of them to discover via day trails are:
• Cowles Bog – Day hikers can explore one of the national park’s many mysterious marshes on the 2.85-miles round trip Cowles Bog Trail. Cowles Bog actually is a fen, long known in literature as a dismal place; in the ancient Anglo-Saxon tale of Beowulf, the frightening, fog-laden fen was the lair of the monster Grendel. At Cowles, the mineral-rich groundwater feeds the wetlands, where partially decomposed plants settle into a mire and form peat. For the trailhead, park in the lot off of N. Mineral Springs Road north of U.S. Hwy. 12. The Greenbelt Trail also heads into the bog.
• Great Marsh – Sometimes the best way to appreciate a wetlands is from a vista, it stretching like a miles-wide impressionist painting before you as a variety of birds congregate or swoop in for a meal. A good way to observe the vast Great Marsh this way is via the Dune Ridge Trail, a 0.7-mile lollipop trail near Beverly Shores, Ind. Pick up the trail at the parking lot off of East State Park Road north of Hwy. 12. The 1.26-miles Great Marsh Trail lets hikers walk through the wetlands where they can several migratory birds – including sandhill cranes and great blue herons – each spring and autumn. The trail starts from the South Lot off of Broadway Avenue north of Hwy. 12.
• Inland Marsh – The 2.6-mile Tolleston Dunes Trail heads through the Inland Marsh near Ogden Dunes. While the high points on the trail run through an oak savanna, the low points (and there are plenty of them) serve as wetlands. Park in the lot at the end of the entry road off of Hwy. 12, about 0.15 miles west of Hillcrest Road.
• Interdunal wetlands – Connecting Calumet Dunes Paved Trail and Glenwood Dunes Trail to the National Lakeshore's Dunewood Campground, the 4.4-miles round trip Dunewood Trace Campground Trail skirts wetlands south of the Great Marsh. The water-filled depressions beneath and between small dunes sits less than a mile from Lake Michigan. This is a good trail if heading from the campground or if looking to extend a walk along the Calumet or Glenwood trails.
• Miller Woods – The first two loops of the Paul H. Douglas Trail (formerly the Miller Woods Trail and now sometimes referred to as the Douglas Center Loop) wind around wetlands and an interdunal pond for a 0.9-mile hike. A boardwalk cuts across the pond to form the loops’ shared leg. Park at the Douglas Center for Environmental Education off of North Lake Street north of Hwy. 12.
• Pinhook Bog – Two trails pass through the acidic swamp. The Pinhook Bog Trail runs 0.86-miles round trip (with 0.26 miles of restricted to ranger-led hikes) and features several unique plants, including five that are carnivorous. The Pinhook Upland Trail is a 2.1-mile round trip lollipop that cuts through a beech and maple forest while offering a great view of the bog.

Hikes explore historic sites at Indiana Dunes

The historic Bailly Homestead on the Bailly Chellberg Trail. NPS photo.

Hikers can explore several historic sites – from pioneer homesteads to homes of the future – at Indiana Dunes National Park.

Humans have lived in the Indiana Dunes area since about 13,000 B.C. when the last ice age’s glaciers retreated from the area. Scattered artifacts have been found on the higher and older dune ridges. More recently, Native American villages existed in the area, but most signs of them disappeared as Euro-American settlers arrived in the area during the 1800s. Because of that, the park’s historic sites focus on sites from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Among the historic sites that can be hiked in the park are:
• Bailly Cemetery – Hikers can visit a family and community cemetery dating to 1827 on this 1.9-mile round trip trail. The cemetery sits about a mile north of the Bailly Homestead on the edge of a sand ridge. Pioneer fur trader Joseph Bailly selected the sand hill to bury his son and erected a thirty-foot wooden cross near the grave. Soon, other members of the Swedish community buried their deceased there. Park at the Chellberg Farm off of Mineral Springs Road south of U.S. Hwy. 12 and head north on the trail for a 1-mile round trip.
• Bailly Homestead – After running his fur-trading post on the Little Calumet River, Joseph Bailly established this farm in the early 1830s when the U.S. government opened northern Indiana to settlement. Among the buildings remaining on the homestead is the Bailly House (construction began in 1834), the chapel that was the summer kitchen, a log house that was the Bailly's dairy house and tool shed built in the mid-1870s, and a brick house from 1874. Park in the lot off of Howe Road south of Oak Hill Road and head south on the trail for a 0.7-mile round trip.
• Chellberg Farms – Day hikers can visit a historic Midwest homestead from the 1800s here. During the mid-1800s until the Great Depression, this area of Indiana – known as Baillytown –attracted a number of Swedish immigrants, who formed a close-knit community. Among them was the Kjellberg family, who emigrated to the United States in 1863. Several historic buildings can be explored on the homestead, including a farmhouse, barn and granary. Park in the Chellberg Farms lot off of North Mineral Springs Road south of U.S. Hwy. 12.
• 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair homes of the future – You can hike back to the future in a ranger-led tour of five historic homes erected during the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair to show what homes of the future would look like. Throughout a single day each October, two-hour walking tours are given of the Cypress Log Cabin, the House of Tomorrow, Florida Tropical, Armco Ferro, and the Wieboldt-Rostone houses. While some of the predictions, such as central air conditioning and dishwashers, came true, others – like the house with an airplane hangar on the first floor (after all, everyone in the future would have an airplane) – proved less than prophetic. In 1935, a developer brought the houses to the dunes hoping to attract home buyers to his resort community of Beverly Shores. Each of the homes are on the National Register of Historic Places.
• Good Fellow Youth Camp – U.S. Steel operated a summer camp for its employees’ children for more than three decades in the mid-20th century. Every week for two months, between 60-100 kids aged 8-15 enjoyed outdoors activities at the camp in a forest near Lake Michigan. No formal trail runs through the grounds, but you still can follow road sides and walk around the camp’s nine buildings and a swimming pool that remain for a 0.5-mile trek. Park at the Dunes Learning Center off of County Road 150 West/Howe Road south of County Road 1350 North/West Oak Hill road.

Diverse flora await on Indiana Dunes trails

A carnivorous pitcher plant grows in Pinhook Bog. NPS photo.

Hikers can see a whole variety of flora at Indiana Dunes National Park, which is among the most biologically diverse units in the national park system.

Fens, foredunes, riversides and hardwood forests all provide different habitats for often unique plants. Indeed, Indiana Dunes boasts more than 370 species of flowering plants with thirteen of them threatened or in danger of extinction.

Among the park’s best trails to see interesting flora are:
• Cowles Bog Trail – Day hikers can see what plants conspire to make a fen such a frightening place on this 2.85-miles round trip trail. While red maple and yellow birch rule the uplands edging Cowles Bog, the swamp is covered in tamarack growing out of partially decomposed plants settling into a mire. Along the bog’s edge are poison sumac, spicebush, blackberry, grape, red osier and witch hazel. Park in the lot off of N. Mineral Springs Road north of U.S. Hwy. 12.
• Dune Ridge Trail – A variety of habitats along this 0.7-mile loop trail ensure you’ll see a range of interesting plants that thrive on sand dunes. The foredunes section of the trail boasts marram, little bluestem grasses, and cottonwoods. Marram is particularly adapted to living in moving dunes, but they succumb to taller plants’ shade. This layer of dead grass provides the soil needed for the oak savanna that replaces it. The trail leaves from the lot on East State Park Road north of Hwy. 12.
• Heron Rookery Trail – Every spring, wildflowers cover the forest floor along the East Arm Little Calumet River on this 3.3-miles round trip trail. Trillium, Dutchman's breeches, and spring beauties are among only a few of the flowers that bloom before tree leaves unfurl. The trail is considered the national park’s most extensive display of spring wildflowers. Start at the parking lot off of 600 East south of 1350 North.
• Pinhook Bog Trail – Among the best spots to see exotic plants in the park is this 0.86-mile trail, which runs through a depression within a moraine. You’ll see five carnivorous plants: the tiny spoonleaf sundew; round-leaved sundew; purple pitcher plant; hidden-fruited bladderwort; and horned bladderwort. While the neighboring Pinhook Upland Trail is open at all times, the bog only can be accessed on ranger-led tours. The trailhead is off North Wozniak Road south of Snyder Road/W 200 N.
• Tolleston Dune Trail – While this 2.6-mile trail is well-known for its wildlife, what attracts so many animals is the great diversity of plant life here. A rare black oak savanna covers the dunes, providing food and homes to a number of mammals. The leaves of the wild blue lupine flower, which grows abundantly here, provides meals for the caterpillar of the Karner blue butterfly, a federally endangered species. The trail leaves from the lot off of Hwy. 12 west of Hillcrest Road.
• West Beach Trail – Hikers can spot an Arizona beauty – eastern prickly pear cactus – in Indiana on this 1.2 miles-round trip trail, which heads to a beach on Long Lake. The cactus’s fruit and pads provide dinner for coyote, gray fox, cottontail rabbits, striped skunks, and white-tailed deer while its flowers offer nectar and pollen to a variety of bees. Pick up the trail at the parking lot off of West Beach Road east of County Line Road.

7 great beaches await at Indiana Dunes NP

West Beach on Lake Michigan at Indiana Dunes National Park. NPS photo.

Dunbar Beach at Indiana Dunes National Park. NPS photo.

Ah, the beach – sunbathing and swimming, flying kites and building sand castles, enjoying a summer sunset or taking in the dramatic approach of a storm. All of that and more is possible for those visiting Indiana Dunes National Park.

America’s newest national park features seven major beaches (listed here from west to east):
• Miller Beach – The Paul H. Douglas Trail (formerly the Miller Woods Trail) runs 2.1 miles (one-way) through forests to Miller Beach in Gary, Ind. While the Lake Michigan beach doesn’t always offer the greatest views – industry sits on either side of it – is is the closest park beach to Chicago and if hiking to reach it you get to cross incredibly high dunes, a fun adventure on its own. The trail starts at the Douglas Center for Environmental Education. Be aware that temperatures on the beach can be significantly colder or hotter than in the trail’s wooded portion.
• West Beach – Not all of the park’s beaches sit on Lake Michigan. Loop 2 of the 1.2 miles-round trip West Beach Trail heads to a beach on Long Lake; it’s a great spot for birding as well with a viewing platform for watching. If you prefer a beach on the Great Lake, however, no worries; just take the West Beach Trail to the 0.7-mile Dune Succession Trail (which is Loop 1 of the West Beach Trail) and follow it to a Lake Michigan shoreline perfect for sunbathing, building sand castles, or flying a kite. Pick up either trail at the parking lot off of West Beach Road east of County Line Road. The Lake Michigan beach also can be accessed via the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk. This 0.9-mile loop allows hikers to explore the eastern end of West Beach. A fishing pier and 900-foot breakwater leading to a lighthouse adjoin the beach. Both surfing and suntanning are popular on the beach. Start the hike by parking in the second lot off of Riverwalk Drive east of Midwest Steele road.
• Porter Beach – A quarter mile of Lake Michigan beachfront can be hiked near the park’s center. Park in the lot at the end of Waverly Road north of U.S. Hwy. 20. The lot allows you to walk the beach at neighboring Indiana Dunes State Park to Porter Beach’s east. That stretch, if walking northeast, offers industry-free views on the horizon. The west end of Porter Beach also can be accessed via the Cowles Bog Trail, the third or westernmost loop of which runs 0.2 miles along Lake Michigan; you first have to pass vast fen and major dunes, but the reward is an incredible amount of privacy on the beach.
• Kemil Beach – Immediately east of Indiana Dunes State Park, Kemil Beach offers far more than sands and waves. You can take a little time away from the beach umbrella and hike a dune or go birdwatching on the Dune Ridge Trail. A parking lot is off of East State Park Road north of U.S. Hwy. 12.
• Dunbar Beach – Immediately east of Kemil Beach, visiting Dunbar is like going back to the future. In addition to swimming and suntanning, you can walk past five historic homes of tomorrow featured in the 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair. Park in the lot off of Lakeshore Drive east of East State Park Road.
• Lake View – While not much different from the adjacent Dunbar Beach, Lake View does offer covered picnic shelters that overlook Lake Michigan. Use the parking lot on Lakeshore Drive west of Broadway; do not park in the Town of Beverly Shores’ private beach parking lot just east of the lot, though, as it’s not part of the national park and can result in a ticket.
• Central Beach – This is one of the better beaches, as it’s far from industry, unlike those on the park’s west side. During spring and summer, bank swallows nest in the dunes. You can access the beach a couple of ways. One is to park at the end of Central Avenue north of U.S. Hwy. 12. For the more adventurous, instead take the Beach Trail, which leads to 0.4 miles of Lake Michigan beachfront at the base of Mount Baldy Dune; the 1.12-miles round trip begins at the parking lot off of Rice Street north of U.S. Hwy. 12 just west of Michigan City, Ind.

Spot Indiana Dunes wildlife on Tolleston trail

Butterflies alight themselves on plants along the Tolleston Dunes Trail (NPS).

Despite being smack dab in the middle of an urbanized area, there’s plenty of wildlife to be seen at Indiana Dunes National Park. One good spot to catch them is the Tolleston Dunes Trail, which traverses a variety of ecosystems.

Map of Tolleston Dunes Trail and overlook boardwalk.

The 2.6-mile trail consists of a stem leading to two stacked loops. Though sporting a 127 feet gain in elevation, on average the grade is only 2 percent with a maximum grade of 9 percent.

To reach the trailhead, from Chicago head east on U.S. Hwy. 12 and from Portage, Ind., head north to that highway. Look for the entry road to the trail’s parking lot about 0.15 miles west of Hillcrest Road, near Ogden Dunes. The lot sits on a former sand mining operation with the trail leaving from the southwest corner.

In 0.3 miles, the trail reaches rolling sand dunes. They were formed 4700 years ago when Lake Michigan’s water level was about 25 feet higher and so reached this far inland.

Quite a variety of animals make Indiana Dunes National Park their home, and many can be found at Tolleston Dunes. Among them 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.

More than 500 species
You’ll reach the first loop at 0.4 miles from the trailhead. Go right/northwest. You’ll enter an oak savannah on the higher ground punctuated with wetlands at the low points. A boardwalk crosses one section of the wetlands.

In all, 41 different species of mammals, 352 birds species, 23 reptiles, and 18 species of amphibians can be found in the park. In the rivers and Lake Michigan, 71 kinds of fish make their home.

Some of the park animals are quite rare. Among those that are federally threatened and endangered are the Indiana bat, the Eastern massasauga rattlesnake, the Rufa Red knot, and the Piping plover.

At 0.8 miles in, you’ll reach the junction with the second loop. Go right/southwest onto the new loop.

Before Euro-Americans farmed and the urbanized the area, a greater variety of wildlife could be found in the area. Elk, black bears and cougars all disappeared before the Civil War, while the gray wolf, river otter and porcupine vanished before World War I began.

Wildlife signs
After 1.8 miles from the trailhead, you’ll reach the first loop. Go right/southeast onto it.

If you don’t spot wildlife other than birds on the trail, they’re probably just laying low. Most animals are active at dawn and dusk. Watch for their tracks, though, especially in sandy areas, which will let you know that one has nearby probably during the past day or so.

You’ll reach the stem trail at 2.2 miles. Go right/northeast onto it and retrace your steps back to the parking lot.

If looking for a shorter version of the hike, skip the second loop and take the cut-off trail. This axes a mile off the hike for a 1.8-mile walk.

Tolleston Overlook 
A quarter mile east of the parking lot entry road is a short boardwalk that heads to two overlooks. The elevated platforms give a great view of the wetlands and a dune ridge that the Tolleston Dune Trail winds through. In addition to being wheelchair accessible, shaded picnic tables can be found at the overlooks.

Indiana Dunes trail explores flora-rich bog

Pink Lady's slipper grows in the Pinhook Bog at Indiana Dunes National Park.
Indiana Dunes boasts among the most diverse flora in the park system. NPS photo.

Pinhook Upland Trail map. NPS map.

Boasting more than 1400 native plants, Indiana Dunes National Park is among the National Park Service’s most diverse sites for flora. A great way to see many of those plants – including some of the more exotic ones – is the Pinhook Upland Trail.

The 2.1-mile round trip lollipop trail cuts through a beech and maple forest while offering a great view of the Pinhook Bog.

To reach the trailhead, from Chicago take Interstate 94 east. In Michigan City, Ind., go south on U.S. Hwy 421 then head left/east onto Snyder Road/W 200 N. Next, go right/south onto North Wozniak Road. In a little more than a mile, turn left/east into the Pinhook Bog parking lot. This part of the national park is not part of its main units along the Lake Michigan shore.

From the lot, go east on the stem trail. The trail surface is packed dirt but can be slippery and muddy after a rain, so be sure to wear hiking boots with good traction.

Beech, maple forest
The subtle changes in elevation so near Lake Michigan result in a variety of ecosystems, which in turn leads to a diversity of plant species throughout the park. Beaches and dunes, wetlands such as marshes and fens, oak savannas and wetland prairies, and hardwood forests, all can be found within the park.

Forests and a bog dominate the stem portion of the trail. At 0.3 miles in, the trail reaches the loop; go left/northeast onto it.

At a higher elevation than the bog, thus part of the loop runs through hardwood forests. Mature beech and maples shade a moraine, a ridge of sediment that was left by the edge of a glacier as it retreated about 15,000 years ago during the last ice age.

Just as the upland forest owes its existence to the area’s glacial history, so does the bog here. A chunk of the melting glacier left behind as the main one retreated depressed the land, forming a kettle lake. When the trapped glacier chunk fully melted, it filled the hole with water while pulverized clay and rock stuck inside it settled on the lake bottom.

The clay prevented the lake water from reaching groundwater or from springs and streams feeding the waterbody. As a result, this trapped meltwater grew increasingly stagnant and acidic over time.

Sphagnum moss
At 0.7 miles, the trail reaches a 33-foot bridge with the bog on the trails’ right/west side. Look for the light-green sphagnum moss covering the wetlands.

Sphagnum moss, which tolerates acidic water, forms floating mats over the lake. This in turn supports ferns, orchids (like pink lady’s slipper), and even strange carnivorous plants such as pitcher plants and sundew. As parts of the bog fill in, blueberry and and holly shrubs can take hold, which in turn opens the way for tamarack and red maple trees to take root.

The 38-foot bridge over the bog, at 0.9 miles from the trailhead, allow hikers to see these plants and many more.

The light-green mats of stringy sphagnum moss stand out in the bog and are even visible from the air. Thanks to compounds in the sphagnum’s cell walls, he moss does not decay easily, trapping water. Be careful to not step on the solid-looking moss – in addition to potentially harming other rare plants that grow atop it, the mats can’t fully support your weight, and you’re sure to get wet.

That’s true even of sphagnum moss that thickens up to six feet deep. If you spot blueberry and holly shrubs growing atop the moss, the mats are the deepest there.

At 1.2 miles in, the trail leaves the uplands for good and reaches a 53-foot bridge over the moss. The Pinhook Bog stretches for 580 acres on both sides of the trail; sphagnum moss covers about a quarter of that area.

Orchids, carnivorous plants
Breaking up the bog’s many green hues are a number of flowers, most notably the pink lady’s slipper. The sole lady’s slipper to lack stem leaves, it can grow up to 18 inches high. Other orchids here are the rose pogonia, which usually can be seen near the end of boardwalks, and the yellow fringed orchid.

Five carnivorous plants make the bog their home. The tiny spoonleaf sundew has spoon/teardrop-shaped leaves covered in mucilage-tipped tentacles that ensnare insects. Round-leaved sundew also has flypaper-styled leaves, which are round rather than teardrop-shaped. The purple pitcher plant’s leaves curl into a pitcher or cup half-filled with water and juices that trap and digest bugs. Hidden-fruited bladderwort feeds on small aquatic insects it captures in a bladder-shaped trap while the horned bladderwort does the same to small insects atop the soil.

At 1.7 miles, the loop reaches the stem trail. Go left/northwest onto it and retrace your steps back to parking lot.

Insect repellent is a must on this trail. Also, beware of poison sumac, which grows on the bog’s outer edges, known as the “moat”; poison sumac has compound leaves of seven to thirteen pointed leaflets with smooth edges.

Hike heads up dune at Indiana national park

As Mount Baldy moves inland, it is consuming trees along the way. NPS photo.

Mount Baldy Summit Trail and Beach Trail map.

Day hikers can clamber to the top of a 12-story living sand dune at Indiana Dunes National Park.

The 0.8-miles Mount Baldy Summit Trail can only be accessed on a ranger-led hike but is well worth the wait at the nation's newest national park. Times for the hour-long daytime and sunset treks on summer weekends are listed in the park's newspaper (The Singing Sands), the park’s website calendar, and its Facebook page.

To reach the trailhead, from Chicago head east or from Michigan City, Ind., go west on U.S. Hwy. 12. Turn north onto Rice Street; parking lots are at the road’s end. Try to find a spot in the first (westernmost) lot. From that lot's southwest corner, take the Beach Trail about 0.18 miles to a spur on the right/east side. Turn onto the spur and stop, waiting for the ranger-led hike to begin.

The 126-foot-tall sand dune on Lake Michigan’s southern shore is “living,” as it shifts about 4 feet every year. Whenever the prevailing northwest wind tops 7 mph, the beach sand moves.

Dying dune
Urbanization is slowly killing the sand dune, however. Thanks to a breakwall constructed decades ago for the Michigan City Harbor, the lake’s waves are taking away more beach sand than they bring in. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers since 1974 has brought in more than 85,000 cubic yards of sand to keep Mount Baldy alive.

Global warming also is starving the sand dune. The shorter and warmer winters decrease the amount of days shelf ice protects the shore from storm erosion.

Mount Baldy – and the other dunes at the national park – formed at the end of the last ice age when lakes of glacial meltwater dried up, leaving exposed sand. As currents and wind from Lake Michigan hit the shore at angles, the sand moves along the shoreline rather than erodes away. Once it reaches a stream, a sandbar forms, resulting in the formation of a small bay with a wide sand spit between it and Lake Michigan. Eventually the sand spit fills the bay’s opening to the open lake, and a dune ridge is created. Some dunes at the national park rise 200 feet above the beach between it and the lake.

Marram grass and later trees stabilize the dunes so that other than the sandy ground and steep climb over them, you’d never know you were walking on a dune.

Falling into chimneys
The national park has closed Mount Baldy for a couple of reasons. First, excessive walking across it has led to a loss of vegetation, so it’s no longer stable and threatens to move across the parking lots. Secondly, fungus-ridden black oaks buried by the dune are decomposing, creating deep holes known as chimneys that people can fall into. A few years ago, a young child slipped into one of these void spaces and was almost buried alive.

Ranger-led tours keep hikers on a path so they do not fall into chimneys or crush any returning vegetation.

The Mount Baldy hike begins with a scramble up steep, loose sand. Your path gains 55 feet elevation in very short order with a maximum grade of 13 percent. A rope can be used to pull yourself up the final stretch.

Views from atop the barren sand dune are incredible. Lake Michigan stretches across the northern horizon, and on a clear day to the northwest the downtown Chicago skyline is visible.

Those who don’t want to make the hike still can experience Mount Baldy through the beach. Just follow the Beach Trail north. The trail and beach curl east along the dune’s base. Marram grass and cottonwoods grow on the foredune.

Discover the Best Trails at Indiana Dunes