Post by The Brez Man on Jul 6, 2010 12:08:39 GMT -5
If you plan on going to the lakeshore to swim, I advise getting there early in the day. There are a few beaches to choose from. The one closest to the Visitor's Center is actually Indiana Dunes State Park. While the facilities there aren't the greatest, parking is the closest. We arrived shortly before 10 am (on the 4th of July) and were aleady being pushed to the west lot away from the facility building. By the time we left at 1 pm, no more vehicle traffic was being allowed into the park. People were parking on the sides of the roads almost all the way back to highway 12 and walking in with coolers and grills. I will say that I was amazed at the large number of grills I saw people either taking in or already fired up and grilling. You could definately tell these people came for the entire day and were mostly well prepared.
There is plenty of sand on the beach, but between the beach and about 10 feet past the shoreline, it's pretty rocky. Once you get beyond 10 feet, the bottom is sandy.
There is also no shade except a few places in the parking lot where there were some trees, but there were numerous dining flys, tarps, and even tents set up either on the beach or between cars in the parking lot.
There is also no shower facility that i could see, so when you walk back to your car from the beach, you might want to be prepared and have jugs of water to rinse the sand off or you'll be driving out with sand covered feet/legs.
According to Trip Advisor, the West Beach has better facilities, but you also have to park further away.
For information on the Jr. Ranger programs, please see the post in the Jr. Ranger section on this site.
There is plenty of sand on the beach, but between the beach and about 10 feet past the shoreline, it's pretty rocky. Once you get beyond 10 feet, the bottom is sandy.
There is also no shade except a few places in the parking lot where there were some trees, but there were numerous dining flys, tarps, and even tents set up either on the beach or between cars in the parking lot.
There is also no shower facility that i could see, so when you walk back to your car from the beach, you might want to be prepared and have jugs of water to rinse the sand off or you'll be driving out with sand covered feet/legs.
According to Trip Advisor, the West Beach has better facilities, but you also have to park further away.
For information on the Jr. Ranger programs, please see the post in the Jr. Ranger section on this site.