Indiana Dunes Day 2

Today we did some more biking and hiking at Indiana Dunes.

We biked the Marquette Bike Trail in the morning. The NPS brochure had listed it as paved (it’s nice limestone) and longer than it actually is, but it was a nice trail through the forest. We didn’t see much wildlife or wildflowers on the trail.

Then we went to the Paul Douglas Environmental Education Center and hiked the loop trails and a bit of the abandoned railroad. This railroad is the same abandoned railroad that the Marquette trail is on, it would be nice if the Marquette trail was extended the extra few miles to the education center. We saw some wildlife on this trail as well.

We didn’t see the beavers out as we were visiting in the middle of the day, but we did see some lodges in the ponds and we saw their work on the trees.

After lunch we stopped by Marquette Park which has an old restored bathing house from the early 1920s. There is a flight museum honoring Octave Chanute who did glider flights before the Wright Brothers on the dunes here, as well as the Tuskegee airmen. It was closed when we stopped, so we didn’t get to see inside.

Then we went to West Beach and hiked the Dune Succession Trail.

The pitcher’s thistle is a threatened species. It grows only in the sandy dunes of the Great Lakes.

After that, we went back to the car and got our water shoes and waded into Lake Michigan, which only had some small waves. Donna decided it was cold.

After supper, we drove to the east end of the Heron Rookery trail and hiked part of it.

It was a nice trail to walk in the evening. We saw evidence of the beaver on the way in, then saw the beaver on the way back.