Porter County, IN

May 13

Porter County, IN occupies the majority of Indiana’s short Lake Michigan coastline, and contains both, the Indiana Dunes SP, and the meat and potatoes of Indiana Dunes National Park.

It is breathtakingly beautiful, especially when you consider that this land was wrested away from heavy industry along the coast, some of which still remains, creating a stark and somewhat dystopian background to the exuberance of nature that flourishes in this region.

It is my hands-down favorite quick escape spot from Chicago, and I’ll bet it will be yours too.

Porter County, IN: Duneland Playground

“The Dunes” highlights

West Beach. For a stunning views of the open dune architecture, you must visit West Beach. Park passes are required, and this particular section gets incredibly busy on weekends in the summertime. Unless you’re actually going to the beach (see below), I recommend visiting off season, when —on some days— you may get this gorgeous piece of natural beauty just about to yourself.
The inland Long Lake Trail will take you over a boardwalk and a high ridge with views of a beaver town, lots of bird activity (including great blue herons, sandhill cranes, great horned owls, and a myriad of woodpeckers and songbirds), before plunging into pleasantly rolling woodland trails. These culminate at the top of a huge blow-out used as a sledding hill in winter.
The Beach Trail features a steep stairway and boardwalk with panoramic lake views, and will cary you over the somewhat marshy terrain past the interdunal ponds, surrounded by a jack pine grove, to the sprawling Lake Michigan beach.
Tolleston Dunes. Though some of the most spectacular duneland trails face the lake, don’t miss the opportunity to hike through these older inland dunes. The ~3 miles of trails at Tolleston are mostly wooded, and clamber over a mixture of dunes and marshland with plenty of climbs and descents. It’s rare to meet other hikers here, and you can enjoy peace and sereninty with occasional background rumble of a passing freight train. In springtme, there’s an absolute profusion of mayapples, lupines and some gorgeous dogwood trees. As summer gets underway, blueberries and blackberries start to ripen, and ferns unfurl to make a lush understory. From the top of ridges, you may see herds of deer, and the boardwalk over the wetland is a good place for a short meditation to the sounds of birdsong.
Indiana Dunes State Park is located at the north end of State Road 49 in Porter County. It spans 2,182 acres of stunning, undisturbed midwestern landscape, including 3 miles of Lake Michigan’s southern shore.
Stately old sand dunes provide a dramatic background, rising more than 200 feet above the lake. Inside you’ll discover a variety of habitats and plant species, including some that do the important job of holding the sand in place and preventing dune erosion.
This is an extremely popular destination, and in the summer, long lines of cars await admission to the park. Fall is a gorgeous time to visit the park when tree colors are at their best, and fallen leaves start to shuffle pleasantly underfoot. It’s also an excellent stopover point for cyclists traveling around Lake Michigan. Be sure to book your reservations well ahead of time.
Hiking! Porter County is a hiking bonanza for Chicago microescapists. Between the State Park and the National Park, there are more than a dozen different trails systems and paths covering close to 70 miles of trails (and probably close to 100 with additional connectors through unofficial footpaths and abandoned roads). Trails can be linked together for day-long outings, or even overnight excursions using the various camping options (see below).

Camping

Indiana Dunes State Park campground is probably the most popular in the area, so be sure to make your reservations well in advance. It’s located less than a mile from the beach and within walking distance of the South Shore Rail Station. Every site has full electrical hookups, with modern restrooms and shower houses available on site.
The East Loop has some sites along its northern edge (near the Nature Center) that back up to the woods, and have a particularly nice, private feel, and are situated close to a couple of trailheads that lead to the network of trails within the park.
Smaller and more secluded than its state park neighbor, the Dunewood Campground is part of the National Park system.
Because it does not offer electrical hook-ups for RV’s, it is also quieter and considerably more rustic. The eastern-most Douglas Loop offers tent camping only, with 13 sites that have hike-in access. The property is wooded and quite shady, and therefore perfect for fall camping, when insect population wanes and direct proximity to Lake Michigan is less essential.
The lake, and all the trails The Dunes have to offer, are still easily reached by bike. There is an especially nice, easy bird-viewing trail with a boardwalk through the restored marshland, where you may spot an enormous variety of wildlife, especially as the fall migrating season draws near.
If you prefer even more seclusion, try the new walk-in sites at Central Beach in Indiana Dunes National Park. Campsites are primitive, nestled deep in the dunes, and spaced far apart from each other. These are extremely secluded, far away from light pollution, so you may want to bring a friend and enjoy some of the best stargazing in the area.

Bike Trails

Northwest Indiana is teeming with recreational bike trails, some of which continue from the neighboring Lake County, and can be linked together into longer trips, or used as routes for your tour around Lake Michigan.

Heading east out of Illinois, you can connect to Erie Lackanawa trail. Just past the town of Griffith, this connects to the 10-mile Oak Savannah trail, which merges into the Prairie Duneland Trail in Hobart, for the remaining 10 miles into Chesterton. From there, you can take the short Dunes Kankakee Trail to the Calumet Trail and keep heading east to the new Singing Sands trail into Michigan City.

Though Calumet Trail has been notorious for its poorly maintained gravel surface and enormous puddles, it is currently undergoing a transformation and re-paving over all of its length, as part of the future Marquette Greenway bike route from Chicago to New Buffalo, MI. (Please note that many of the online descriptions of this trail are inaccurate, and do not reflect these recent improvements.)

Must Do

Go to the beach!! Closest to Chicago, West Beach gets tons of visitors during the summer, and has plenty of parking to acommodate them. The beach itself is expansive, so once you’ve braved the lines for entry, you can find spots further away from the crowd (but also further from the washrooms). A smaller, lesser known beach is at the end of Portage Riverwalk, and features a beautiful beachfront pavilion that offers concessions and live music in the summer months. The pavilion terrace and the pier are a favorite spot for watching the sun go down.
For a more low-key beach going experience, visit these during the week, when crowds are considerably diminished.
All Indiana Dunes beaches are spectacular year-round, and turn into a barely-recognizable lunar-like landscape in winter.
Cowles Bog is my absolute favorite Chicago day hike escape. Total trail length is about 5 miles, but the main loop is just over 3 miles over variable terrain. The mile-long Greenbelt Trail that goes to the outlying parking area is flat and linear, but it skirts the outer edges of the wetland offering fascinating glimpses into ongoing restoration efforts, and provides excellent opportunities for birdwatching. The “bog” in the name is misleading. It’s actually a fen, and its rich flora provides gorgeous and changing scenery throughout the year.
This is a phenomenal hike during any season, with surprisingly steep climbs, and a huge range of habitats from woodland, duneland and a wild Lake Michigan beach. This last one is a great place for a mid-hike picnic, or a cooling swim during summer months. But we’ve also hiked this trail in knee-deep snow and in the rain. Spring and fall are especially lovely. Biting flies can be quite bothersome in the summer and early fall — prepare well!
For an even longer hike, Cowles Bog trail can be linked with the neighboring network of woodland trails between the eastern edge of its parking lot and Waverly Road. Though there is a small parking area and a marked trailhead on Waverly north of Route 12, these trails are unmarked, and —as far as I know— no map exists. However, they are easy to follow, and if you combine the two trail systems, you will enjoy a hiking route of between 8-9 miles.
Three Dunes Challenge is a trail in Indiana Dunes State Park that connects the summits of three of the tallest dunes in the park: Mt. Jackson, Mt. Holden, and Mt. Tom. The trail is 1.5 miles with 552 feet of elevation gain. This may not seem like much, but there's a reason they call it a "challenge" (other than marketing, that is). Like most of the duneland trails, the Three Dune Challenge trail features lots of soft, deep sand, which makes climbing frustrating business. The dunes are quite steep, so although the 1.5 miles is not too bad, you will get a bit of a workout. The last dune has a stairway to the top. Still strenuous, but you can make much more measurable progress. The view from the top is spectacular.

Gardens

Brinka Cross Gardens is hidden away in Furnessville, just outside of Michigan City. It’s a unique sanctuary originally carved inside a native woodland over the period of 45 years by Bill Brincka, an artist and professor at the Art Institute of Chicago, and his partner Basil Cross.
Today, their vision lives on in a tranquil and lush garden oasis centered around the Asian Mid-Century Modern home, and surrounded by pristine woods. Depending on the season, you can roam the rustic paths among the sea of daffodils and blooming magnolias, the changing colors of late summer and fall foliage, or the dramatic contours of leafless trees in winter.
Gabis Arboretum at Purdue University spans over 300 acres of greenspace with dog-friendly walking trails, gardens, woodlands, and wetlands (plus the award-winning half-mile model railway garden complete with waterfalls, elaborate bridges, and an astounding 14-foot change in elevation). Exhibits include a native plant garden, a rose gardens and an “adventure garden” with raised-bed vegetable gardening, green roofs and composting.

*Great Marsh viewed from the Dune Ridge Trail off Kemil Road.*

Best Kept Secrets

You can camp at the Sunset Hill Farm County Park in Valparaiso at the seasonal campground, and it actually offers some of the most rustic accommodations around: walk-in tent-only sites without electric hookups, and primitive facilities. Each campsite has a fire ring and table; some sites have bench seating around the fire. All trash must be packed out.
In keeping with the rustic theme, reservations can be made by filling out downloadable form available from the the park website.
Great Marsh Trail. This short but exceptionally lovely birding trail has its terminus at a well placed observation deck, which affords broad views of the marsh in all its glory, and opportunities for intimate glimpses of skittish birds as they go about their business. You may spot sandhill cranes, the elusive green heron, and —if you look carefully— you may even discern a commodious bald eagle hidden in the tree tops. This is a perfect spot for a brief pause while you’re on your way to somewhere else, but you’re looking for a longer outing, here’s a way to turn it into more of a day trip.
The Heron Rookery Trail is well off the beatern duneland path, and winds in a narrow band along a portion of the Little Calumet River that was once home to over 100 Great Blue Heron nests. After decades of nesting here, the herons have moved on to new other territories. But this secluded trail is alive with kingfishers, woodpeckers and a other migrating and nesting warblers. Early spring here brings out the most extensive display of spring wildflowers in Indiana Dunes NP, which are at their most exuberant from late April through mid-May.
Hidden away on a secluded hilltop at the far end of the Bailly Chellberg Trail in Indiana Dunes National Park, the Bailly Cemetery holds the legacy of the Joseph Bailly family. You might expect to find a small headstone or two, after tromping through the damp woods. But —overlooking Route 12— a spacious, dignified stone-walled memorial was carefully recreated in the Roman style to preserve and protect the historic the family burial grounds.
Shirley Heinze Land Trust preserves natural lands and waters in northwestern Indiana, and and through their efforts has carved out protected pockets of nature in some unexpected areas. All nine preserves within Porter County are worth more than a passing glance, but don’t miss the J. Timothy Preserve which skirts the flood plain between Sand Creek and the backs of suburban homes, and is a treasure trove of spring ephemeral flowers, and the large, abundant Meadowbrook Preserve with about 4 miles of trails through wooded step ravines with meandering streams.
Portage Lakefront attracts a lot of beach goers, but it’s protected harbor is a wonderful place to put in a kayak and head up the Portage Burns Waterway for quite a different view of the local landscape. After passing under Route 12, the channel splits with the east arm of the Little Calumet River going east, and the channel continuing west to what eventually becomes the Deep River. Along the way, you get fascinating glimpses of boat-owners’ docks, some personalized and decorated like tiki bars, dilapidated fishing platforms, and other surprises normally hidden from view.

Adjacent attractions

Every fall, the middle-of-nowhere Jasper Pulaski Fish and Wildlife area comes alive with what is one of the most amazing wildlife spectacles in the region: the sandhill crane migration. Every year, thousands and thousands of migrating sandhill cranes descend on a field in the middle of nowhere in rural Indiana, as they get ready for their annual trek to warmer lands. The spectacle is indescribable, and absolutely free to anyone willing to brave the frigid November winds on a wide open field at sunset.

Justyna Frank