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Towering dunes, fire-spitting smokestacks and technicolor sunsets! Welcome to Indiana Dunes, where heavy industry is never fully out of sight, creating a stark and dystopian background to the exuberance of nature that flourishes in this region.

Hello, Fellow Travelers!

It's fitting that one of the entry points from Chicago into Indiana's Duneland region is the stretch of highway that bisects Wolf Lake.

This lake sits like a shiny patch of hope on land ravaged by relentless human activity. In recent decades, tremendous cleanup efforts have been underway to restore the natural habitat here. Consequently, Wolf Lake environs have begun to look more inviting, lush with wetland greenery and teeming with birds. Bald eagles sometimes cruise overhead.

The lake straddles the state border offering tantalizing views of wildlife, nature and fishermen on the west side, and the town of Whiting to the east, with its massive backdrop of BP Refineries and industry.

It is the perfect doorway to the split personality of Indiana Dunes.

I love the image of the green beach chair inexplicably found in the middle of a landlocked Lake Michigan beach, against the setting of heavy industry and foreboding clouds, because it perfectly captures the duality so characteristic to this part of Indiana.

It was taken in November, when an unexpected break in the weather allowed us to launch a kayak into the Burns Waterway off Portage Beach, and explore this inaccessible strip of land, cut off from the rest of the world by the bulwark of US Steel Corporation. While having a mid-paddle picnic on the beach, we spotted a bald eagle lifting off from this forgotten piece of land.

As a life-long Chicago resident, I have witnessed the changes taking place along Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore over the last forty years, and the results are nothing short of astounding.

Although at just 45 miles, Indiana’s Lake Michigan shoreline is the shortest of all the states with whom it is shared, conservation efforts and their fruits are nowhere more evident than right here.

The entire stretch of Indiana Dunes retains aspects of dual personality, with seething industry and heavy handed human interference visible at every turn, and untamed, exuberant nature and wildlife making a vigorous comeback in its midst.

Indiana Dunes is dotted with beaches, and it is really hard to pick just one destination among so many options.

Day Trip

If I had to choose one for a daytrip out of Chicago, with maximum chill for the buck, it would be the beach at Cowles Bog, because it is virtually inaccessible to anyone except dedicated hikers and boaters, and therefore never crowded.

It's not the kind of beach where you want to haul in your picnic cooler and umbrella. The two-mile hike over quite rugged terrain precludes that.

Instead, put on your swimsuit, grab a daypack, towel, a packed lunch, and a drink (or, better yet, a way to prepare it) and get ready for a vigorous hike alongside a verdant fen and over steep woodland trails. The long, sandy descent will deposit you --hot and sweaty-- on the beach, where you can indulge in a secluded mid-hike stop over.

Cool off with a nice swim, chill out over your picnic and brew some tea if the spirit moves you. Then, you can lounge around a bit, and repeat the swim/dry off routine as often as you like, before hiking back to complete the loop. Heck, on really sweltering days, we've even hiked back dripping wet 😅.

Another option for a Chicago daytrip is The Great Marsh which is a robust wetland ecosystem with abundant animal activity. The official trail here is flat, grassy, and relatively short, but here are some suggestions to turn it into a more demanding day hike, a 20+ mile bike excursion (with lunch and/or beer at the midpoint in Michigan City), or even an "micro-camping" outing.

Oh, but if you have more time?

Bike Camping Overnight

For the classic Chicago-style bike camping overnight, ​head out on your bike starting at Buckingham fountain. There are a number of routing options, but some might put you in hair-raising contact with fast-moving cars. With just 10 miles of extra pedaling, you can stay on the more relaxed route of mostly bicycle paths and some quiet roads, as shown here.

From this point, you will have a choice of two campgrounds:

1. Heading north from the town of Porter take the Dunes Kankakee Trail to Calumet Trail (this can be rough, there are currently trail improvements underway) to the trail along Route 49, which will deliver you to the gorgeous campground at Indiana Dunes State Park along Lake Michigan shoreline.
2. Continue on the original route to Beverly Shores to the Dunewood Campground managed by the NPS. This is not directly adjacent to the lake, but it is quieter and considerably more rustic, with 13 sites that have hike-in only access. The property is wooded and quite shady, and therefore perfect for fall camping, when insect population wanes and direct proximity to Lake Michigan is less essential.

Both these camping options are also conveniently accessible from stops along the South Shore train route, and --of course-- by car.

If you're planning to camp overnight, you will need some gear, and I have great recommendations for you right here.

But even if you're just out for a day trip, I believe that nothing turns a simple day outing into a camping experience like cooking outside.

The most compact tool for this is the minimalist Vargo Titanium Wood Stove, which packs down completely flat and can be carried in a pocket. Best of all, it uses only natural kindling and sticks for fuel, eliminating the canister disposal dilemma one faces with typical backpacking stoves.

To use it, simply assemble it, and collect small branches and twigs from around your campsite, making sure you have a good pile of sticks from matchstick to thumb-size thickness. Break them into small pieces, about 3" long. Pieces of bark and small, dry pinecones are good to have too.

I've tested the Vargo Stove with Baddest Bee fire starting wicks, which made firing up the diminutive stove vastly easier. With this, and a good supply of tiny "logs", I was able to cook my evening meals and brew morning coffee with only found fuel.

This stove is ideal for day trips, but it’s so compact that you can easily carry it on all your trips, and use when natural fuel is plentiful. This would allow you to preserve your canister fuel for those occasions when it’s really unavoidable.

Looking to really get away from all the people? You've come to the right place. Northwest Indiana is full of "best kept secrets", places few locals even know about.

• ​Seidner Dune & Swale Preserve is managed by Shirley Heinze Trust, and it's one of my most surprising finds of the last couple of years. It's a thin strip of land literally hugging the side of Indiana Tollroad, and squeezed on the other side by the sweep of the Calumet River. Though its waters are still far from pristine, a walk along its marshes packed with avian life will renew your faith in the future of our planet.
• ​Ambler Flatwoods (also managed by Heinz Trust) is a magical discovery of a trail starting from an unremarkable parking area off a country road. The trail meanders over verdant and moist, jungle-like flatwoods, culminating in a storybook tunnel of evergreens formed by what was once a Christmas tree farm.
• ​Pinhook Bog is part of the National Park System. It features an Upland Trail which is open to the public, but for an out-of-this-world treat --complete with carnivorous plants-- sign up for a ranger-led outing to the quaking bog.
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  🦟🦟🦟 Bug spray is a must during warm season.

​18th Street Brewery in Gary (Miller Beach) is a great community place with a relaxed vibe, friendly service and a good place for a pint and a neighborly chat bar-side.

​Lakeshore Cafe across from Lighthouse Outlets offers tasty noshes, bracing hot drinks (they really know how to properly brew a nice cup of tea starting with quality loose leaves), and has a slightly rustic vibe with an extra cozy attic level.

​Burn’em Brewing has a loud and open taproom, but the service has a homey feel (gotta love King of the Hill reruns on one of their TV’s!), and the Walleye Fish and Chips is the best I’ve had anywhere (with walleye, as with steak —less is more). Pair with their trademark Hipster Juicebag for a nice mid-day treat.

​Bartlett’s Fish Camp located at the end of Washington Park, where Trail Creek empties into Lake Michigan, has a humongous seafood menu with water views galore. (Packed solid in summertime, but if you go there in winter when the channel is frozen, you'll think you've come to the end of earth.)

​Lubeznik Center for the Arts brings together local and world-renowned artists in an intimate setting. For those of us easily overwhelmed by large museums, this spare, cameral gallery is a lovely place to slow down, and come face to face with individual artifacts.

OMG, there's sooooooo much to do around here, isn't there? Believe me, I'm just scratching the surface. If you want to explore at your leisure, here's a good start, county by county:

The gateway to the Dunes: Lake County, IN​

Meat and potatoes of the Dunes: Porter County, IN​

The land of hidden gems: LaPorte County, IN​

Happy exploring! Next time, we'll head up the Lake Michigan shoreline in the other direction: up towards Wisconsinl

​ See you then for another dose of --Justyna

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