State in the Midwest of the United States. It is the 38th largest by area and the 17th most populated of the 50 United States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the nineteenth state on December 11, 1816. Named one of the best places to hike in Indiana by USA Today, Trail 9 at Indiana Dunes State Park offers incredible views and impressive sand dunes that make you feel thousands of miles away.
You can ride bikes on the Calumet Trail, a multi-purpose crushed limestone trail that crosses the eastern section of the park and provides access to Indiana Dunes State Park, as well as to the communities of Beverly Shores, the City of Pines and Mount Baldy, outside Michigan City, Indiana. In the 1950s, the desire to maximize economic development through an Indiana port sparked interest in preservation. The Indiana dunes were even recognized by USA Today as one of the best places to hike in the country in the recent travel feature, 51 Scenic Hikes. Following a publication on the unique flora of dunes published in the 1899 Botanical Gazette by University of Chicago botanist Henry Chandler Cowles, a movement to preserve the dune habitat began.
Designated a National Natural Monument in 1974, the reserve also contains the Ancient Pines Natural Area, a prehistoric forest now exposed by bursting dunes. It is a geographically isolated unit of the park, owned and maintained by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources as a state nature reserve. The 9-mile (14 km) Calumet Trail will eventually connect the east and west segments of the Indiana Dunes National Park. Indiana Dunes National Park is home to a wide variety of wildlife, including white-tailed deer, red foxes, raccoons, opossuses, white-tailed rabbits, various rodents, Canadian geese, seagulls, squirrels, falcons, turkey vultures, peacocks, blue herons, songbirds and garter snakes.
Since 1925, Indiana Dunes State Park has been surprising visitors with its natural terrain, three miles of dune lined coastline, and a diverse range of flora and fauna. This was one of the first places Richard Lieber considered when establishing Indiana's state park system. As the level of Lake Michigan dropped at the end of the Ice Age, the shoreline regressed and new dunes formed along the lake shore. Teachers in Illinois and Indiana can receive continuing education units (CEUs) or continuing recertification units (CRU) for each workshop.
A 50-mile (80 km) trail is planned that will cross Indiana and link the communities of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan along the Lake Michigan shoreline. Hoosier Prairie, a national natural monument, is a 170-ha (430-acre) meadow of tall grass adjacent to Griffith, Indiana. The park is bordered by Lake Michigan to the northwest and is surrounded by and within the authorized boundaries of Indiana Dunes National Park, a unit of the National Park Service; the NPS has water from the normal high water line to 300 feet (91 m) from the coast.