Joyride with the Joneses
Follow along on our family journeys!
Indiana Sand Dunes National Lake Shore
Visited: July 2018
Duration: 1/2 day
Accommodations: Holiday Inn Express, Portage
National Park Trip Season 3 (Summer Edition) is in full swing. This was our first stop of the trip. So much to do here and the park is spread out so prepare yourself for some driving. We stopped in at the Visitor Center to get some information and pick up our Junior Ranger packets.
There are lots of habitats here to offer several things to do and see depending on your interests. Lakes, Beaches, Dunes, ponds, marshes. oak savannas, prairies, river and bogs offer hiking, swimming, biking, birding, wildflowers, history, and recreation .
Starting at the Indiana Dunes Visitor Center we decided to get our Junior Ranger Activity books completed and to do this we needed to visit the Bailey Homestead. The Bailey Homestead is a few miles to the west of the visitor center. The Homestead and Chellberg farm area was once used as a trade route by American Indians and early traders. We had a nice hike around both places and filled out our books.
The Chellberg Farm. Over 100 years ago this farm was owned by Swedish Immigrants named Anders and Johanna Chellberg. We used the self guided brochure to tour the area and finished our Bingo page while looking for tools that people used to work the land in this time and area.
Up next we decided to go check out a beach and do the Dune Succession trail. Short trail and then I let the boys play on the beach to burn up some energy. They loved it here, it was hard to pull them away, but we are starving. National Parking can build up an appetite.
We finished up our Junior Ranger books over dinner at Bass Pro shop and headed in for the evening.
![img_3726[1]](https://joyridewiththejoneses.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/img_37261.jpg?w=698)
The next morning we stopped at the VC to earn our badges and get a certificate, before heading to the next park.
All done here at this park. 2018 brings really cool National Park Junior Ranger cancellations for your Passport. How exciting.
![img_e6299[1]](https://joyridewiththejoneses.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/img_e62991.jpg?w=317&resize=317%2C518&h=518#038;h=518 "img_e6299[1]")
![img_e6300[1]](https://joyridewiththejoneses.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/img_e63001.jpg?w=373&resize=373%2C518&h=518#038;h=518 "img_e6300[1]")
We enjoyed our time here at Indian Dunes National Lake shore, there is so much to see and do. I wish we had some more time here but we are heading towards Maine and chose to spend our time there. Have you been to Indiana Dunes? What were your favorite activities to do?
Joyride with the Joneses 
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