Indiana Dunes Nat’l Park - Mid-October Backpacking/Camping Trip (70/55 F)

We got this idea from REI. I never knew we had a National Park within commuter rail striking distance, possibly because until February it was a National Lakeshore instead. (Apparently visitation and revenue has jumped through the roof this year due to the name change and joining the online reservation scene.) Either way, I had heard about “the Dunes” in general, but not about the parks specifically or the South Shoreline train that can get you there. I’m not sure if it’s considered backpacking if you hike to a campground, but we’re calling it our first backpacking trip because we did wear backpacks to go camping and hiked a lot. 😁 We hiked 8 miles from the Dune Park commuter stop to the Dunes Campground and then 9 miles the next day back to Dune Park train stop.

Day 1 - Glenwood Dunes Trail to Dunewood Trace Trail to Dunes Campground (8 miles)

We lucked out with a beautiful first day, high of 70 F, which is fantastic for October here. We took a morning train and arrived at the Dune Park stop at 10 am. It was confusing trying to find our way to the trails even though the stop is in between the State and National parks. There are no maps or signs inside the station or immediately outside. We followed some people across the tracks where there were then signs to the visitors center and State Park. We needed maps for both parks and decided to go to the State Park first as Google maps showed a road connecting a state trail and the national trail we wanted. (Google maps was wrong btw.) 

We made it to the State Park office and got their map, but no luck on a National Park map. We were too impatient to wait in the car line to ask for maps at the gate house. So we went online and screen shot the National Park maps to save battery on airplane mode. The State Park map clearly showed that trail we thought connected with the National Park didn’t. So back we went to the commuter rail stop to find the Glenwood Dunes Trail. I note that the trip to the State Park and back is included in our 8 miles. 

We struggled to find the start of the trail which was supposed to be just down from the Dune Park Stop, across W Dunes Hwy. Back home and using Komoot, we realized the trail actually starts down N Main St which is perpendicular to the highway. Our problem was the park map showed roads but not N Main St and it had the dotted line for a trail, so we were looking for a trail from the highway not a road. At the time, we could see on the map that the trail crossed another nearby road. We gave up trying to find the start and hoped to find the crossing instead. The walk down the highway to Tremont Rd was not pleasant - lots of fast moving cars and doubts in our minds of if this plan would work. It did! We found a wide trail after walking a bit down Tremont Rd and from there it was easy to follow. 

We liked the Glenwood Dunes Trail because we were the only people on it most of the way. But it was a strip of woods with highways and trains nearby, so during parts we could still hear the low hum of both, mostly the trains. Near the end we ran into a friendly park volunteer who gave us some cool info, including the fun fact that the park has the most amount of biodiversity per acre than any other National Park. He made a good natured crack about folks not knowing how to use an old school compass and relying on their $900 ones (iPhones). Oops. That is on our list of things to learn before we go to RMNP or one of the FS areas. Also our Moto phone/gps was only $120. :) 

Shortly after this encounter, we ended up on the Dunewood Traces Trail, which was the plan but really we just followed the signs we began to see that said to campground. Not far past the .7 mile to campground sign we got lost in the bog or marsh, whatever it was. We were doing fine, and then things got soggy and it was hard to see the trail. There were some blue arrows painted on trees and we followed those, but then they stopped and dead ended with lots of brush and trees. Since this was soon after a road crossing, we could see the tops of some houses to our left. We knew we needed to go diagonally right deeper into the woods to head toward the campground. But without a trail and with our poor navigation skills, we were worried about getting lost if we just bushwhacked our way through. 

We spread out and pushed forward trying to find the trail and we had success after 5-10 minutes. I stumbled on what looked like the trail, faint from behind but more clear ahead, and after a few more minutes of walking we came across a reflective trail post. Woo! We felt very accomplished, haha. Later the rangers told us even they get lost back there and the large gaps that look like potential trails or turns are where old houses used to stand. This made us feel less stupid, so whether true or not we appreciated the comment. 

In the campground, we went around the two walk-in site loops and were really, really disappointed because they were all full! Who goes camping in October?!? Lots of people apparently. So we dithered at the park office, cleaning up a bit and trying to google other campgrounds. Eventually we decided to take the train back to Chicago from the nearby Beverly Shores stop. As we finished some snacks, a ranger came by and saved the day! He asked if we just arrived and we said yeah, just figuring out what to do next since the park was full. He looked at our bags and asked if we had our tents and everything on us. We explained we had hiked from the Dune Park stop. He told us it was our lucky day because he had a site reserved for the Halloween program, but it would only be running from 6-9 pm. So if we didn’t mind sharing it with a bunch of kids until 9 pm, we could rent that site. Sold! We really appreciated being squeezed in last minute, but we learned our lesson from the close call and next trip we will be sure to reserve a site.

We walked to the nearby gas station to get some cash to pay for the site, grabbed a cider at the restaurant/bar across the street to break it for change, and then headed to the site to set up. We tucked off to a corner, and our tent being so small was an advantage as we were out of the way of the program. We weren’t hungry yet, so we walked another 2.5 miles round trip to see the sunset on the beach (no packs, so not part of our 8 mile calculation). The view was nice but the sunset was covered by clouds. Oh well. On the way back the fatigue really hit me. That last mile took forever. 

Back at camp we boiled up our dehydrated beef stroganoff while trick or treating started. I nearly choked when someone referred to us as experts on something camping related...because we were backpackers bahaha. I quickly announced this was our first trip, which started some good convos. We enjoyed chatting with the rangers/volunteers and got a lot of great info from them. We were overall really impressed by the friendliness and helpfulness of all the staff. Seeing the kids in costumes was fun too and everyone trickled out between 8 and 8:30 pm. The rangers were very nice and threw a couple more logs on the fire for us before leaving. 

That night was predicted to get down to 48 F but when I looked it up the next morning the low was only 55 F. This was frustrating to hear, because I was more cold than the first trip and I wore base layers this time! DH was apparently warm until I made him try to cuddle for warmth. I’m thinking, based on waking up being sticky, damp and cold at the same time, that I overheated at one point and that made me cold. Or maybe it was having my head buried under the hood and mouth breathing. Either way it was not fun, and although I wasn’t cold, cold, it was uncomfortable. And go figure it was dark enough to not need my eye mask this trip. Our air pads were champs and managed to not get punctured on the gravelly tent pad. I think we need a tarp or footprint for future campground nights. Oddly enough the tent felt fine space wise this trip, considering how tight it felt the first trip. But I still wish we had two vestibules. We managed to fit my pack inside DH’s so both of the packs plus our shoes fit in the vestibule. 

Day 2 - Dunes Campground to beach to State Trails to Dune Park stop (9 miles) 

Early next morning a child somewhere began crying and then a dog began barking, but I was too lazy and cold to dig for the ear plugs. We slept in until 8, probably to make up for poor sleep early in the morning. DH insisted on a pillow for the next trip...before I even got my coffee. Apparently there would be no more trips unless he got a decent pillow. Fine, fine, fine. Is the coffee ready yet? Some coffee, non-goopy but still gross dehydrated eggs (left over from last trip), and more coffee later, we packed up and headed out around 9:30. Also, I should note that the Nestles coffee packets are both cheaper and way more tasty than the Starbucks Via packets. 

We stopped for more coffee at the gas station on our way to the beach (see a theme), and so we didn’t get there until closer to 10 am. It was practically empty which was really nice. After walking a couple miles on the beach, we checked the gps and learned we missed the trailhead for the state trail. We backtracked a couple minutes and took a trail we found to the top of a dune to nowhere...social trail leading out to lots more social trails. We backtracked a few more minutes and found the trail 10 marker. We took that trail uphill, after first finding a secluded bush. Too much coffee. I felt oddly pleased packing out my used toilet paper. Ha! I did it; not so gross after all. 

Shortly after we leveled out on the trail, we ran into some local hikers, who were excited to see us with our packs and asked if we were going camping. We explained we had the night before and we were practicing backpacking. Turns out one guy was a National Park ranger and he said they were working on more backpacking sites. We agreed that would be awesome (they only have one site reservable for groups). He also confirmed that my idea for a two night trip, adding a night at the State Park to do the Cowles Bog Trail (National Park), would work well. (If the geography is confusing, it’s because the National Park surrounds the State Park.) He recommended Cowles Bog as a fun trail. Yay! I felt as though we kept running into personal cheerleaders and even if they didn’t know it, it really was encouraging. 

We continued on trail 10 until it branched to trail 9, where we turned to avoid the marsh that trail 10 runs by. We felt a little marshed out and hoped the mosquitoes would die soon. We liked the State Park trails in general because they are more set back in the green zone and you cannot hear any traffic; we really felt like we were in the middle of the woods. Eventually trail 9 led to the nature center where we used the restroom before taking trail 8, the three dune challenge. 

The three dune challenge was 550 ft of elevation change up and down three dunes. It kicked our butts because while it was not much elevation, the slope on two of the dunes were like 30 and 35 degrees and the trail was sand, not just sandy. On the middle dune we sunk very far down into the sand and constantly took one step forward, half a step back. After the last dune we accidentally started down trail 4 to the campground instead of completing trail 8 to the beach parking lot. But I was done at that point and said who cares. We then hiked back to the Dune Park commuter stop, first stopping in the campground to eat some snacks and grab more coffee. 

We timed it fairly well where we only had to wait about an hour for the next 4 pm train. So we read and rested inside the station, where it was warm. We were definitely very tired and sore after this trip, but not anymore so than a typical workout. We still managed to get to yoga the next day at least, so I thought it was a success. We were still interested in backpacking, so I worked on planning our next trip.