This Indiana national park has arctic flowers, desert cactus, and houses that floated across a lake

The national park Indiana didn’t have until 2019

Thirty miles from downtown Chicago, a stretch of Lake Michigan shoreline has been quietly doing something most people don’t expect from Indiana. The dunes here rise 125 feet above the water.

Carnivorous plants grow in glacial bogs. Arctic wildflowers grow next to desert cactus.

More than 350 bird species pass through. And tucked along a residential street, five houses from a 1933 World’s Fair still stand where a developer floated them across the lake on a barge.

Indiana Dunes became the country’s 61st national park in 2019, and it’s been drawing nearly 3 million visitors a year ever since.

How a botanist’s fieldwork helped save this place

Long before anyone called this a national park, a University of Chicago botanist named Henry Chandler Cowles spent years studying how plants take hold and spread across bare sand.

His research here in the late 1800s helped build the modern science of ecology. His work also started the push to protect the land.

By 1916, National Park Service Director Stephen Mather held hearings on a proposed Sand Dunes National Park.

Decades later, Dorothy Buell and the Save the Dunes Council ran a nationwide campaign to buy up dune land before it disappeared to development.

Congress authorized the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in 1966, and 53 years later, it became Indiana’s first national park.

Arctic bearberry grows next to Indiana’s only cactus

The park sits at a crossroads where eastern deciduous forests, western prairies, and northern boreal forests all run into each other.

That collision produces a plant community you won’t find anywhere else in the national park system. Bearberry, an arctic species, grows within walking distance of prickly pear cactus, the only native cactus in Indiana.

The park counts over 1,100 plant species within its 15,000 acres.

Add in 46 mammal species, 60 butterfly species, 18 amphibian species, and 23 reptile species, and the biodiversity here rivals parks ten times its size.

Nine beaches stretched across 15 miles of shoreline

The park has nine different beach access points spread across its 15-mile run of Lake Michigan shore. West Beach is the most built-out, with a large parking area, a bathhouse, restrooms, and a concession stand.

If you want fewer people and more open sand, Kemil Beach and Dunbar Beach are the spots.

Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk sits on a reclaimed industrial site and has a paved accessible boardwalk alongside the pavilion.

On a clear day, you can see the Chicago skyline from almost any of these beaches, about 30 miles across the water.

Mount Baldy moves four feet a year and swallows trees whole

Mount Baldy rises about 125 feet above the waterline and it doesn’t stay put. The dune migrates roughly four feet inland every year, burying trees and park roads as it goes.

That’s why they call it a living dune. The summit is closed to the public to protect what little fragile vegetation survives up there and to prevent injuries on the steep, shifting sand.

Ranger-led tours run on select dates if you want to reach the top.

The beach at the base stays open year-round, and the views of the lake from down there are worth the trip on their own.

A floating sphagnum mat hides carnivorous plants at Pinhook Bog

Pinhook Bog formed about 14,000 to 15,000 years ago when a chunk of glacier broke off, settled into the ground, and melted in place.

What’s left is a National Natural Landmark with a mat of sphagnum moss thick enough to walk on, though it shifts under your feet. Pitcher plants and sundews grow here and catch insects to survive.

The rare horned bladderwort grows here too. So do orchids, tamarack trees, blueberry and cranberry shrubs, and the elfin skimmer, the smallest dragonfly in North America.

The bog opens only for ranger-guided events and select self-guided days.

Cowles Bog holds 400 plant species in one looping trail

Cowles Bog, the site where Henry Chandler Cowles did much of his groundbreaking research, was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1965.

More than 400 plant species grow within its boundaries, and the National Audubon Society has named it an Important Bird Area.

Just to the east, Miller Woods holds some of the last surviving black oak savannas in the world.

The Miller Woods loop trail passes an overlook above a marsh where rare blue-spotted salamanders live alongside western chorus frogs. Most people walk right past this section of the park.

That’s their loss.

Fifty miles of trails cover dunes, bogs, marshes and savannas

The park runs 14 trail systems covering more than 50 miles in total.

The Dune Succession Trail at West Beach walks you through all four stages of dune development and climbs more than 250 stairs, with Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline spread out behind you at the top.

The Cowles Bog Trail covers 4.7 miles through ponds, marshes, swamps, and black oak savannas before reaching the shore.

The Tolleston Dunes Trail passes through 4,700-year-old dunes formed when Lake Michigan sat 25 feet higher than it does now.

The Great Marsh Trail stays flat and leads you to a birding platform above one of the largest wetland complexes in the Lake Michigan watershed.

Three hundred fifty bird species follow the Mississippi Flyway through here

Indiana Dunes sits along the Mississippi Flyway, one of the major migration corridors in North America, and the birds know it.

More than 350 species have been recorded in the park, which puts it among the most important birding areas in the entire Midwest.

The Great Marsh, Cowles Bog, and the park’s beaches draw shorebirds, waterfowl, hawks, and songbirds in numbers that can stop a walk in its tracks.

Every May, the Indiana Audubon Society runs the Indiana Dunes Birding Festival, drawing birders from all over the country. If you go in the fall, the park also runs monthly guided bird walks throughout the season.

Walk through a fur trader’s 1822 homestead and a Swedish farm

The Bailly Homestead dates to around 1822, when French Canadian fur trader Joseph Bailly became one of the first non-native settlers in the region.

The National Park Service preserves the main house, a log chapel, a brick house, and the family cemetery on the site, which earned National Historic Landmark status in 1962.

A short trail connects to Chellberg Farm, established in the late 1860s by Swedish immigrants Anders and Johanna Kjellberg and worked by three generations of their family before the park service bought it in 1972.

Along the trail between the two, the Mnoké Prairie, restored with the Potawatomi, takes its name from the Potawatomi word for “good earth.”

Five World’s Fair houses crossed Lake Michigan on a barge in 1935

Five houses from the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair stand along Lake Front Drive in Beverly Shores, right inside the park. They were part of the Homes of Tomorrow Exhibition, which nearly 50 million fairgoers walked through.

Developer Robert Bartlett bought the homes after the fair and moved four of them across Lake Michigan by barge to anchor a resort community he was building.

The five homes, including the House of Tomorrow and the Florida Tropical House, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Four have been restored through a partnership between Indiana Landmarks and the National Park Service.

Climb three dunes back-to-back at the state park next door

Right next to the national park, Indiana Dunes State Park runs its own operation with separate entrance fees and passes.

The big draw is the 3 Dune Challenge, a 1.5-mile hike that takes you up and over the three tallest dunes: Mt. Jackson at 176 feet, Mt. Holden at 184 feet, and Mt. Tom at 192 feet.

You get views of Lake Michigan, the Chicago skyline, and the landscape spreading out in every direction.

USA Today named the state park’s Trail 9 one of the top scenic hikes in the country, so if you make the drive, leave time for both parks.

Visit Indiana Dunes National Park in Indiana

To get to Indiana Dunes, head to Porter and LaPorte counties in northwestern Indiana, about an hour from Chicago on Interstate 90/94.

Start at the Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center on U.S. Route 20 near Porter for maps, exhibits, and ranger guidance before you fan out across the park.

You can also ride the South Shore Line commuter rail from Chicago, with stops near several beach and trail access points. Leashed pets are welcome on most trails and beaches.

Check the official website for current entrance fees, ranger tour schedules, and seasonal access details before you go.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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