Traveling with Patience

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

Mark on top of Mt. Jackson

Sue on top of Mt. Holden

Lake Michigan from the top of Mt. Holden

At the top of Mt. Tom

A Couple of Days at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

A Couple of Days at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

After having the RV in storage for three months and completing some projects on the house we headed out to the Northwest Region of Indiana (known as The Region) to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Indiana Dunes is very different from most national parks which usually have a couple of gated entrances- Indiana Dunes has 9 entrances - only one with a gate house. The park stretches from Michigan City to Gary along the Lake Michigan shoreline. I was last here in 1970, a long time ago. There is also a state park (Indiana Dunes State Park)in the middle of the National Lakeshore Park. We visited all but one of the beaches - walking the beach and wading - the Lake Michigan water was too COLD for Mark and I to go for dip. We were amazed at how many people were swimming on the beaches - lots of them. The beaches were very busy. I guess we are just weenies when it comes to cold water temps. After spending a week in Destin, FL - Lake Michigan is definitely COLD water.

West Beach, Portage Beach, Kemil Road Beach, Dunbar Beach, Lake View Beach and Central Avenue Beach were amazingly very different. Some were all sand while others were all rocks. We were disappointed that Mount Baldy was closed to the public - scientists from the Indiana Geological Survey and from Indiana University are trying to determine the cause of holes that have opened up on the surface of Mount Baldy. They are doing limited ranger-guided hikes this summer, but not during the time we were there. We also used our Indiana State Parks Pass and entered the Indiana Dunes State Park to see the beach and the old Pavilion and Beach House that is being renovated. We ended up staying in a private campground - the state park campground was full and the national park campground was very rustic!!! No services.

We hiked trails and completed the 3 Dune Challenge - a 1.5 mile hike that took us to the top of Mt. Jackson (El. 176 ft.), Mt. Holden (El. 184) and Mt. Tom (El. 192). This was all hiking in the sand - no convenient walkways, etc. on the trails. We decided to wear shoes - but the climb was 45 degrees at times. Of course we came back down in between each dune. The views of Lake Michigan from the top of the dunes was beautiful - we could even see the skyline of Chicago from Mt. Tom visibility was so clear. These dunes are impressive - but they are small compared to the dunes at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Park in northern Michigan on Lake Michigan. Sleeping Bear has the most impressive natural dunes.

We also drove Lakeshore Drive - to see the 1933 Century of Progress Homes located of the shores of Lake Michigan in the national park. These homes were built for the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. They were later loaded onto barges to bring them across Lake Michigan to the National Park Service location to become part of the park.

It's interesting how the park wraps around the town/cities in the area. Very different from most of the national parks.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Back Home Again...

After seven weeks of travel in 12 different states, we are back home in Indiana. We had a wonderful trip seeing parts of the US that were relatively new to us. We ended up traveling 4,755 miles and spending $1,286.00 on gas - a huge difference (much lower) in fuel costs from out trip last summer to the Northwest. We paid under $2.00 a gallon for gas from Indianapolis to Gulf Shores, Alabama heading south. Prices were a little higher in Arizona($2.35 for one fuel stop), but they dropped back down all the way back to the Midwest. We ended up spending $950.50 on RV parks and campsites in State and National Parks. We had electric and water at all of our sites which was really nice with the Cool nights.