The morning I was supposed to leave Willow Lake Park, I realized that there were two campgrounds with the same name Willow Park, in the same state and separated by about 2 hours of traveling. Because I had stayed at the campground closer to my next overnight (now only and hour away), it didn’t make sense to keep the next reservation so I pushed on to Chesterton, Indiana where the Indiana Dunes State Park (IDSP) is located. I would be staying in that state park campground for three nights. Because I would be a day early for my reservation there, I treated myself to a room at the Bird Water Motel, only about 7 miles away. Nice little hotel with WiFI, hot showers and close to food places. Coincidentally it was right next to a Walgreens, so I was able to get all my prescriptions refilled. What? Dinner was pizza and movie.
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| View from my hotel deck door |
Next day I checked into the IDSP campground. Finally found my people. Not just an RV resort campground filled with seasonal residents, but a campground with all kinds of campers: tents, homemade tow-behinds, pods, RV’s, trucks and vans. If you could sleep in it, it was there. All this and 90 degree heat as well. What a difference a new time zone makes in the weather. I was all set up and checked in by about 11 AM with plenty of time left in the day for a hike in the state park. I decided on a 6 mile hike; trail 10 on their trail map. It was about a 3 mile hike through a lush oak savanna and along a marsh by way of the back side of the wooded dunes. Then 3 miles along the beautiful sandy beach of Lake Michigan. Both the trailhead and the trail end were right from the campground.
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| Indian Dunes State Park Trail Map |
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| Camp Site |
What a spectacularly special place this park and the National Park of the same name are and both sandwiched between the massive industrial complex. Such foresight to have preserved such places. My hike, once I got onto the beach gave new meaning to the word hot. It was cooling to walk barefoot in the lake. About 3 hours total hiking time. Note too self, bring more water on similar hikes. That night I slept with the hatch up and the bug net down (still in the 90's), lulled to sleep by the many neighboring camper's soft conversations around their camp fires.
The next day I traveled a short distance to the Indian Dunes National Park and did a 5 mile trail called the Cowles Bog Trail (North). Same landscape as the state park the day before, only with a shorter stretch, maybe a mile, along Lake Michigan. Amazing to stand on the beach and realize you are looking out at a lake and not the ocean. Made me homesick for Peaks. As the trail dumps out onto the beach, you can look West and see the gigantic ArcelorMittal USA Steel Plant in Burns Harbor. Only about 1/2 mile away. Freaky to see such a place right next to a national park. I guess there have been some large chemical spills that have closed the national beach as recently as a couple of years ago. This hike took about 2.5 hours.
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| As the trail approaches the beach |
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| Signs of life |
I have checked out of this campground with a number of one night campground stands to look forward to on my way to visit Lake Itasca (headwaters of the Mississippi). Then on to Voyegeur National Park in northern Minnesota at the Canadian border.
