Indiana Dunes National Park is one of the more recent additions to the National Park system, and a continuation of my belief that parks designated after 2000 are probably less than deserving of the title. Currently, it is the 6th smallest park, beating out Gateway Park (a park in St. Louis) and Hot Springs -- another city park. But while those two have historical significance (Gateway Park should be a National Monument), Indiana Dunes NP was more appropriately named a National Lakeshore, along with 2 in Michigan and 1 in Wisconsin. Why Indiana Dunes got elevated even though it is the smallest of the 4 is beyond me.
Having said that, it wasn't a waste of time by any stretch. I just wish that we had a standard of size, historical significance, and unique beauty that had to be met before such a designation. It can't be visitors because that skews the weight towards places near major population centers and there is no population center more major than Chicago (well maybe a couple). We made a decision not to go into Chicago during our vacation, despite the fact that there are a plethora of things to do in the 3rd most populous city in America.
Originally, I had planned a lot of hiking over the course of the two days that we would spend in Indiana. But I had pity on the family when I realized that July is July no matter the state. It was going to be in the 90s the two days that we were there and taking hikes didn't sound like a lot of fun. So we decided that Wednesday would be National Park day and Thursday would be an in-door (air-conditioning) day.
To start with, we wanted to go to the beach. Not the Indiana Dunes National Park beach, but rather the Indiana Dunes State Park beach. Yes the national park surrounds a state park. We never did get the history as to how that came to be. Surprisingly, we got almost no history of the park at all. The visitor's center wasn't the most informative one in the park system. We arrived at the State Park before 10am and they informed us that the lifeguards had not arrived yet and that we couldn't swim until they did. We asked when they would arrive and were told in as many words, "when they feel like it". Whether it was truly flaky lifeguards or just a lack of communication, it seemed like plans would need to adjust.
So instead we went to the Chellberg Farm & Bailly Homestead. Both were very near the entrance to the state park and basically what we wanted to do in the afternoon. Only Elisabeth and I brought actual shoes with us, everybody else just had sandals, thinking we wouldn't be walking all that much. But we went on the approximately 1 mile loop from the parking lot to the 2 homes. The walk was in a densely wooded area that was filled with mosquitos. The dense woods protected us from the heat and made the walk quite pleasant from that perspective. The mosquitos on the other hand were quite hungry and made us hurry along. The Chellberg Farm was built in 1885 by Swedish immigrants. It looked nice, but it was all locked up. Apparently, they only open the buildings for tours on the weekends. This limited our time learning about some of the original settlers to the area. Continuing on this theme, the Bailly Homestead was closed for renovations (not that it would have been opened on a Wednesday anyway). So we had to content ourselves with standing on the outside looking in.
After the short hike, we went to the Indiana Dunes National Park Visitor's Center. There wasn't a lot in the Center, probably because while the park is one of the more visited parks in the nation, that is mainly people from Chicago going to the beach. We spent a few minutes there before going back to the house for lunch.
After lunch, we decided to go to West Beach. It is the most popular beach in the park and crucially for us, the largest parking lot. When we were planning on going to the beach in the morning, I figured that any beach would have room regardless of parking lot size, but since we were arriving after lunch, the smaller ones would probably be filled up. We arrived at the beach and finally realized why it is called "Indiana Dunes", between the parking lot and the beach there are large dunes that you can go hiking on the stretch for many miles in either direction. I would have liked to take the Dunes Succession Hike that gives you a good view of the Dunes. However, it was now quite hot, and maybe more importantly, we didn't bring any hiking shoes. We went down to the beach area which was very crowded near the stairs, but thinned out pretty quickly as you walked down the beach. We played in the water for a little over an hour. While there, we met an older couple who gave me my only "You Betcha" of the entire trip.
On a clear day, you can see Chicago from where we were. It was not an incredibly clear day, but more on that later. We were told that on the east side beach there was a huge spill from the factories so maybe God protected us when the lifeguards didn't show up for our earlier plans. We couldn't stay much more than an hour or sun burn would our poor skin.
Next we went to Dog Days Ice Cream Parlor. It was on our way here that I realized that even though we were in suburban Indiana, it was still a much more liberal place than Alabama. There were a lot of signs praising unions, along with other more pointed signs. However, the ice cream was great and they even had a toy train that circled near the ceiling inside. Once back at the house, we settled down for dinner and watched The Wilderness Family. I was surprised to learn that Stacy had never seen it. She said that is was the kind of movie her family would have enjoyed.
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