{"id":1196,"date":"2012-07-03T13:53:10","date_gmt":"2012-07-03T13:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=1196"},"modified":"2012-07-03T13:53:10","modified_gmt":"2012-07-03T13:53:10","slug":"2012-summer-vacation-day-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/2012\/07\/03\/2012-summer-vacation-day-3\/","title":{"rendered":"2012 Summer Vacation, Day 3"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Entrance<\/a>
Entrance to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We left Sandusky and headed West to Indiana. \u00a0We’ve traveled through Gary many times between home and Mark, IL, as a kid, and I never knew this even existed. \u00a0On the Southern-most end of Lake Michigan is a national park and a state park preserving some natural wetlands and sand dunes.<\/p>\n

\"Cowles<\/a><\/p>\n

We hiked through the Cowles Bog area. \u00a0The bugs weren’t too bad. \u00a0We hiked through deep sand, up and down steep dunes, so the four-mile hike was a bit strenuous. \u00a0We saw a couple of blue heron in the marsh, but I wasn’t quick enough with my camera.<\/p>\n

\"Lake<\/a>
Lake Michigan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eventually, after a number of steep climbs, we reached the shore of Lake Michigan. \u00a0The water was surprisingly warm. \u00a0We spent a relaxing hour in the water, wading out some distance to a \u00a0sand bar, and playing frisbee.<\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/a>
Looking back toward the Cowles Bog trail from Lake Michigan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This view gives you some idea of how steep the dunes were near the water’s edge. \u00a0The largest of these sand dunes is Mt. Baldy. \u00a0These dunes normally move about four feet a year, but because of tourists trampling the delicate grasses that hold the dunes, Mt. Baldy is moving 26 feet a year.<\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/a>
Looking up Mt. Baldy from the parking lot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They have most of Mt. Baldy roped off. \u00a0Tourists are supposed to stay on marked trails. \u00a0You can see the footprints here where people have ignored the signs. \u00a0The park ranger said each footprint will result in the movement of a ton of sand. \u00a0In a year or two they expect the parking lot and bath house to be covered over with sand. \u00a0You can see how the sands have just about covered some trees in this photo.<\/p>\n

It was a relatively strenuous day, but we had fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We left Sandusky and headed West to Indiana. \u00a0We’ve traveled through Gary many times between home and Mark, IL, as a kid, and I never knew this even existed. \u00a0On the Southern-most end of Lake Michigan is a national park and a state park preserving some natural wetlands and sand dunes. We hiked through the … Continue reading 2012 Summer Vacation, Day 3<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}