The Indiana Dunes

The Indiana Dunes are at the south end of Lake Michigan, east around the lake from Chicago.

learn about the Indiana Dunes here

SPECIAL    DOUBLE POST DAY   At the end of this, go on to next post about pollution at the Dunes.

Dunes are formed in a way similar to snowdrifts, when the wind picks up a grain of sand it is carried along until something causes the wind velocity to drop.  Starting at the end of the last glacier in the area, (approximately 11,000 years ago) wind has created the dunes at the south and southeast edge of Lake Michigan.

The Indiana Dunes National Park covers about 15,000 acres of lake shore and inland a ways.  Included are the lake shore, meadows, swampy/boggy land and woods.  You can take the South Shore Line electric train to the Dunes from Chicago. 

The only named dune that I am aware of is Mount Baldy, so named because it is an active dune with no vegetation covering it.  It is moving approximately four feet per year as the wind coming off the lake picks up the sand from the face of the dune, carries it up and over the top and then drops it on the back side.  Mt. Baldy is just west of Michigan City, Indiana and has height of about 126 feet above the lake.




Mount Baldy is above and Central Beach is below. 
 


Approximately one mile west of Mt Baldy is "Central Beach" which has some sizable dunes of it's own.  Part of our family spent a couple of hours there last Sunday.  Five of our grandchildren (and their mothers) climbed to the top of the largest dune at Central Beach, probably about 125 high.

Heading down to the lake

Looking east toward Michigan.   The water here was very clear, but see my next post about pollution nearby.   (Click on "older posts" below.)

West toward Chicago.  Some of the group are on the dune.

 Nearing the top.  The trio at the bottom is not part of our group.

 At the summit!