Bird-watching in Indiana Dunes Nature

By Lara Weber. Tribune staff reporter

Forget about the surrounding steel mills and power plant. Porter County, Ind., smack in the middle of industrial ick, is evidence of what a few determined conservationists can accomplish.

Step off the South Shore Line into the Indiana Dunes and let the hard edges of city life soften. Leaves rustle from towering branches, a creek wends through the woods and the dune sands shift underfoot. This is not Gary, Ind.

An overnight in the Dunes may surprise you, too, particularly if you think of the area as a late-night party spot for carloads of teenagers. The cleaned-up state park--a completely refurbished campground opened in 2005--now attracts more bird-watching naturalists and grandparents in RVs than wayward revelers.

...connect with nature to soothe and relax the senses

Nature, families retake Dunes | Chicago Tribune

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