The Indiana Dunes State Park is a truly scenic attraction! Lake Michigan is a giant blue backdrop as you gaze from the many dunes within the park. The pavilion has washrooms and a snack bar and a upper floor that opens to a breathe taking view of Lake Michigan (looks like a never ending ocean)! The park has a camp grounds, nature center, and numerous buildings that you can cook & eat your meals. Trails are plentiful from simple to rugged and length from a 1/2 mile to several miles. Plenty of parking and during the summer months lifeguards are on duty. If you are in the area it is definitely a attraction not to miss!!!! I have visited the park during every month of the year and each month has its own inviting scenery.
This is a beautiful park adjacent to the National Lakeshore. Lovely nature hikes and beautiful beaches. One of the most bio-diverse places in the world for nature lovers. Can get crowed in the summer especially during the weekends. Pretty empty during the week when school is in session. Good place to cross country ski in winter.
thanks for visiting and reviewing the park!
thanks for visiting and reviewing the park!
I grew up in Indiana but visited the Indiana Dunes for the first time on a trip home from Arizona to visit family. I had no idea how special the Indiana Dunes are. We really enjoyed the interpretive displays at the visitors center and a great hike led by a very knowledgeable volunteer. We were a little early for fall color and plan to schedule our next Indiana trip for October instead of September. Sometimes state parks don't have the resources to provide facilities and staff that the national parks do, but the Indiana Dunes State Park was excellent on both counts. We also stopped at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore visitor center and enjoyed it as well.
The dunes are very clean and beautiful!! We came to the beach to watch the sunrise. It was phenomenal! Just a nice beach to relax at and swim. ( the water temperature is much warmer in august than in June)
love the beach and trails..spring , summer, fall and especially in the winter! Very beautiful and peaceful. nature at it's finest
thanks for visiting and reviewing the park!
I have lived 2 miles from Dunes State Park for over 20 years. Others have focused on the beach, so I will focus on what I go to the Dunes for - bird watching and trail walking. Indiana Dunes State Park is a great place to experience nature fairly close to metropolitan Chicago. The park has a fairly extensive trail system - so flat, some hilly, some more open, some in the woods. Not only are there sand dunes, but there is an extensive marsh within the park, so that altogether there is a fairly wide diversity of habitat. It is, without a doubt, one of the best bird watching spots in the entire Midwest. Spring is a great time to watch rivers of migrating birds along the lakeshore from a dune overlooking the lake, or walk the trails for warblers and other neo-tropical migrants. Lake watching is also good in the fall and winter, and there is always something to be found out on the trails then, too.