One of our favorite short hikes at the Indiana Dunes National Park is a hike to a small creek between Central Beach and Mt. Baldy. Kintzele Ditch runs between two dunes and empties into Lake Michigan. Its ever-changing path from the foredunes to the lake makes this area a bit hazardous in the winter - one really doesn't know where the creek is, so you can fall through the thin ice into the water. Of course, this creek isn't too deep, so you would only get wet to the knees or so.
Wandering a bit upstream - even with the dunes - can result in a fall into chest-deep water.
With the snowfall we received this February, the creek is mostly hidden under ice and snow. Standing nearby, you can still hear the water flowing by. This year's shelf ice lacks the tall mounds and "ice volcanoes" so the creek doesn't wind through these formations.
Looking toward the woods, it seems as if it would be an easy hike down the center of this valley, but again, we don't trust the ice here. Walking back this way, we would encounter a road not too far away, making the walk back much easier. Instead, we chose to take the more difficult path to enjoy the snowfall one last time before the thaw.
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