With the stroke of a pen, the President signed a bill yesterday, making The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore America's 61st National Park. The Indiana Dunes National Park is Indiana's first national park. The 24 square mile park - created in 1966 - preserves miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, dunes, rivers, wetlands, savannas, and woods. The last few years have seen plenty of new land become part of the park. Many private homes on or near the dunes were left empty for years, and they were recently razed to become part of the national park. I'm not exactly sure what changes will take place now that it has become a national park, but additional parking, year-round washrooms, restored beaches (replenish lost sand), restore prairies and savannas to a natural state, and perhaps offer better access to the dunes that have been off limits for a few years.
I visit the Indiana Dunes almost every weekend of the year - maybe 45 or so - and winter is one of the most interesting to me. Not only are there very few visitors, but the snow and ice formations along the shore can be incredible. This year, the shelf ice is relatively unimpressive, but if you've never seen mounds of ice such as these, it's still worth a trip. The ice on the lake is washed in by the waves where it's piled up piece by piece until the mounds freeze and slowly build out into the lake. This ice can build hundreds or thousands of feet off shore - virtually to the visible horizon. But remember, never venture onto this ice, it's not solid, and falling through is likely. Falling through this ice is usually a recovery mission for the Coast Guard, not a rescue. Congratulations to The Indiana Dunes National Park.
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