Today we visited the newest National Park. Indiana Dunes became a national park on February 15, 2019. It is so new, we almost missed it on our tour. As we were planning our trip between Lansing and Chicago, we were looking for a place to spend the night between the two cities. As we reviewed the map in more detail, we discovered the new National Park. It turned out to be a great discovery.
One of the trickiest parts of having sand dunes as the basis for a park is that the act of visiting and viewing them quickly damages the dunes. The solution, while somewhat frustrating, is the network of stairs built to allow close up viewing.
From the steps, you can see the dunes up close and into the distance. Not all the dunes are protected this way. Those with trails in the sand are closely monitored so that people stay on the trails and so that the dunes are not too negatively impacted.
Who knew there was so much sand in northern Indiana? The dunes have been used to study the development of habitats. It has been determined that there are definitely shifting sands, but there are also patterns of growth that show plants develop on the dunes in a defined pattern.
As we approached Lake Michigan, the stairs ended and we got to walk on the sand.
At the beach, you could see the impact of waves and wind on the dunes up close.
If you turned instead toward the water, it was surprising to see stones rather than sand in the bottom of the lake.
As we used a road to return to our starting point, we discovered a large variety of animal and plant life. There were several ducks, fish and insects in the pond.
There were also numerous types of trees and grasses growing in the sand.
We also observed areas where nothing grew. These are the places where wind and rain are most likely to reshape the dunes.
If you have ever tried to grow flowers, I doubt that you used sand as the soil. However, on the dunes, there were several different flowers that we observed. We are not botanists, so excuse our non scientific descriptions. We saw white cottony flowers growing by a fence.
We also saw these yellow plants near the pond.
We also saw these daisy type flowers
The yellow plants also grew near the path.
And purple buds as well. The variety and colors of the plants was truly amazing.
After our hike through the dunes, we went to a local diner for lunch. At least one customer had been there for a long time. We had great sandwiches and ice cream for our meal. We were not there nearly so long as the gentleman in the corner.
