Indiana Dunes National Park

Indiana Dunes is one of our newest national parks, re-designated from Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to Indiana Dunes National Park in February 2019. At the time of my visit in July 2020, it was the newest national park in the system. It’s about 45 minutes driving from Chicago, so visiting this park would be relatively easy and I’d time it with one of my visits there. On the way home from my roadtrip out west with Sally, I spent a morning out here taking in the scene.

After experiencing this place, I could see how it was designated a national park. The beach and lake enable a lot of recreation, from swimming to paddleboarding to jet skiing and more. And in the distance you can see the highrises of Chicago. There are even hiking trails through the woods, which I wish I could say more about, but there were so many biting bugs that after 10 minutes of the hike even Sally wanted to turn around. But I imagine these hikes would be quite nice when the bugs aren’t so bad.