Marsh and Dunes



Small wetlands form between the dune ridges of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The complete progression from sandy beach to mature forest can be experienced as you walk inland from the Lake Michigan Shore.

One of the best places to experience this is West Beach just outside of Gary, Indiana. A one mile looped trail, including boardwalks and over 250 stairs, will take you from the beach to the forest and everything in between. You'll even run into plant species that "shouldn't" be this far south, or this far north. Some species have established a hold here after the last ice age, in a small micro environment, while the same species have disappeared everywhere else for hundreds of miles around.

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