The Dunes Succession Trail is located in the West Beach area and offers a mile-long look at the stages of dune development. From the parking lot walk the paved road down to the beach and pass through the bath house. The trail starts on the other side on the beach on the shore of Lake Michigan.
We weren't the biggest fans of trudging through the sand but it's good for those calves, right? Did you know that walking on the sand slowly is more difficult than walking fast or running? Now all those fools running on the sandy trails make a little more sense.
It didn't take long to get to the boardwalk though. We thought it looked wonderful...until we got a good look at all those stairs!
But, with all the landings the stairs actually weren't that bad. There is only 250 of them, after all.
The views as we climbed the dunes were kind of excellent. We even got to see some "crop circles".
Of course they were caused by wind and not by aliens. Oddly there was no wind except a very light breeze right by the shore the entire time we were in Indiana. Sharon pointed out that if not for her friendship with me and my incessant chatter about the wicked Midwest wind she would have thought that the weather pattern was normal for the area. Meeting the "locals" whether through blogging or while on location can help you get a better understanding of the area.
These sand loving sunflowers were everywhere, I think they may be Helianthus debilis whose common name is actually Beach Sunflower. The flower and the leaves seem to match.
It was hot at the top! We passed through a little wooded section and then stopped so Sharon could take a phone call before heading back down to the parking lot. One odd thing we noticed while in the area was that cell phone reception was horrible near the beach. The things we take for granted!
The weather has shifted today and it's hovering around 50 degrees with brisk winds. Glad that kind of weather waited until Sharon headed home! I worked a 10 hour day yesterday but only have one other shift this week for a whole 4 hours. Have I mentioned how much I love the New Girl? I tell her at least once every time we work together. Luckily she loves her new home as much as we love having her there. More pics from the dunes getaway tomorrow!
I've actually never been there, so I'll pin this. Have you ever been to the Michigan Dunes? I did a blog post on it - I think you'd like it there.
ReplyDeleteWalking in the sand is so hard on the legs! And then doing all those steps. Boy, you two will be rocking the beautiful legs for sure:)
ReplyDeleteLove the crop circles and the picture of you two FINALLY at Indiana Dunes. LOL The view to the water from the top is to SIGH for!!
ReplyDeleteI would just be thankful that the stairs are there. I've tried climbing sand dunes. It's one step forward and two back.
ReplyDelete