Hiking the Indiana Dunes

Guess what? I'm back to telling you about our mini-vacation! :)

Ryan and I have had our eyes on the Indiana Dunes for a while now, and we've even made plans to actually go a few times, but the weather never cooperated. This time, though, everything worked out perfectly, and we were so grateful!

The dunes are in northern Indiana, and while they don't fit neatly within county lines, the ones we spent Saturday climbing were in Porter County, the middle of the three counties we toured on our trip! Our specific goal for the day was to take on the 3 Dune Challenge. Here is a peek at our day doing just that (plus a bit more!)

We were really fortunate that the day we went, all the parks offered free entry, so this was totally free for us! An unexpected blessing!

Oh! I almost forgot to tell you this part. We stopped by the Visitors' Center first, and while I was taking one last bathroom break, Ryan found the kids' room:

 Guess he's practicing to be like Darci Lynne.

Anyway. Back to the dunes. The Shaffers begin!

The bulk of the trails for this challenge look like what you see behind us. They went right through forest areas and had heavy tree cover. But the trails themselves, rather than being packed dirt, were deep, thick, loose sand. (And obviously...hilly!)

Ryan scurried right to the top of the first dune. I did pretty well until I had almost reached the end. Whew! Then it got a little rough. (By the way, the weather was almost perfect for this. Sunny but not scorching, breezy but not unbearably windy, cool but not cold. Loved it!)





Made it to the top of the first dune! The view was beautiful - out over the hills! (And obviously even a good cell signal since Ryan's phone picked right then to ring!)

All the stats on this dune are right there for you if you want to see how far up we climbed, etc!

Back down we went, and then back up the second one. Another long climb up!

 Ryan decided to run it. Yes, you read that right! I decided to take his picture.

 Stunning views from the top of the second dune. Well, hello, Lake Michigan!

 Little taller, little steeper, little prettier!

 Dune #2, conquered!

 In which I dump sand out of my shoes. I ended up doing this probably 6 times throughout the hike. Shoes AND socks = FULL.

 Last shot before heading down and back up for #3!

The third dune was, obviously, the tallest, steepest one. I wasn't sure I would survive it, especially at the end, but I did!!

 At the very end, there was a sand trail beside a steep set of steps. (Say that three times fast!) I was totally planning to use the stairs, but Ryan dared me to climb the sand. I couldn't refuse the dare.

Our documentation of the final climb. He made me go first in case I lost my balance. He wanted to catch me. I went almost to the top before caving and using the sand and side of the stairs for balance/pulling.

 Made it!

 We did it!!!!

 Hello again, Lake Michigan!

 43 degrees? For an out of shape girl, that's pretty good!

We discovered you could actually see Chicago from here! (Perfectly clear day!) It's about 60 miles from where we were right then.

We conquered the three dunes in a little over an hour (including photo opp/sand dumping rests) so we decided to spend a little extra time visiting the shores of Lake Michigan, climbing a couple of bonus dunes, and hiking a regular trail in the park. Here are just a few more pictures, in no particular order:

We were just so thankful for a fun and perfect day! Yay for dunes!!!!!

Linking up with Tamar!