In the spirit of fall, I decided to share with you a hike I went on last October. It was the first time I went hiking after moving to Chicago.

A friend who lives in Indiana told me her husband had gone to a hike nearby in Indiana Dunes National Park and asked if I was interested in checking it out with her. I was obviously interesting in checking it out because hiking is one thing I miss a lot here in the flatness of Chicago (as I’ve stated a few times already..so I apologize for my repetitiveness).



We honestly got so lucky the day we chose to go because the weather was amazing! It was in the 60s with the sun shining high and bright as opposed to all the rain we’ve been getting lately.



When we got there we didn’t know if we should only go up one sand dune or do the 3 Dunes Challenge and hike up all three! I honestly didn’t expect it to be that hard (at 1.5 miles round trip), so we decided that we would do all three! (Okay, maybe I decided and my friend just went along ;))



It started off pretty easy and then eventually I realized that hiking on sand is a little bit harder than actual land. But that didn’t change our mind on doing all three dunes. We kept at it!

And can you blame us? look all this beautiful fall foliage! We kept taking pictures! It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete, including those picture stops. This is the view from the last dune:

After we were done, about 1/2 a cup of sand or more came out of each shoe. lol

And once our shoes were semi-clean we were ready for lunch! I usually like to pack healthy snacks and sandwiches for hikes, but this day, I did not. So, instead we went to a mediterranean restaurant called Lemon Tree and got some food to go. (Don’t worry it wasn’t that fattening.)

We brought it back to the lake part of the park and sat there and enjoyed our lunch with a view!



I got a chicken lavash wrap and filled it with a bunch of fresh and delicious vegetables.



Friend got a chicken bowl with her choice of veggies!

Hike Details:

Location: Indiana Dunes National Lake Shore, Chesterton, Indiana 46304

Entrance Fee: $7 for in-state vehicles and $12 for out-of-state vehicles (Admission is free weekdays between November and mid-April)

Hours: 7AM-11PM Daily

Length: 1.5 mles round trip

Level: Moderate

Highest point: Mt. Holden at 192 feet

Starting Point: The Nature Center

If you live out here in the Chicagoland area, I would totally recommend doing this hike, especially in fall, it’s just so pretty!