Move over, Grand Canyon and Yellowstone – Indiana Dunes, near Chicago, is a US national park with beaches, hiking and incredible biodiversity
- Indiana Dunes, one of the newest US national parks and easily reachable from big Midwestern cities, attracts millions of visitors a year these days
- The 60 sq km park has beaches on Lake Michigan, hiking and cycling trails, historic landmarks, and over 370 bird species in spring and autumn
I leave the highway and open the car windows. A cheery chorus of ribbiting frogs replaces the monotone drone of traffic, scents of fresh water and deep woods banish the smell of exhaust fumes. My heartbeat slows, synchronising with rhythmic whooshing waves lapping the beach.
I’ve been coming to the Indiana Dunes, on the southern tip of the United States’ Lake Michigan, since I was a kid. My dad was a travelling salesman and northwest Indiana’s cities and towns were in his territory.
After dozens of sales calls and more ice cream cones than gas station stops, we always ended our road trip in what was then known as the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, a designation bestowed by the US Congress in 1966 to protect the area.
We always seemed to have it to ourselves. But since 2019, when Congress voted to make the 6,000 hectares (23 square miles) of federally protected land – including 24km (15 miles) of beaches – the nation’s 61st national park, the Indiana Dunes region has been getting a lot more attention.
The Indiana Dunes National Park map resembles a patchwork quilt, the result of it having been pieced together – around small towns and beach communities – over 80 years, through roughly 7,000 independent real estate transactions, legislative conservation victories and donations of untouched land by local families.