A National Park in an Industrial Zone?

As we were driving east on Rt. 90 near Gary, Indiana we noticed a sign we had never noticed before for Indiana Dunes National Park. This piqued our curiosity and we decided we had to have a look.

Gary is about 25 miles east of Chicago. You know you are near Gary by the stench of sulphur dioxide spewing from the US steel plant there. Gary is a decaying post- industrial city. A national park here?

We drove through Gary and came to a back road leading into the countryside. We left Gary and its smell in the rearview mirror and came upon sand dunes and a swampy natural area. We could no longer detect that we were just a few miles from Gary.

Indiana Dunes National Park is one of the newest national parks, established in 2019.

Once on the LakeMichigan beach, it is hard to tell you are not on Cape Cod or some other ocean vacation spot, except for the shoreline view of Gary and Chicago to the west and Michigan City to the east.

I’m glad that the good folks of Gary have a place like this to get away and enjoy.

The park was closed due to the government shutdown, but the bathrooms were open and immaculately maintained. The garbage cans were empty. There was no litter anywhere. All was well (and free).

My heroes of the day are the volunteers who have stepped up to maintain this park. In spite of our initial skepticism, we recommend a visit to the Indiana Dunes National Park.