Northwest Indiana may be best known for its steel mills. But I found a number of biking possibilities — both quiet roads and rail-trails — starting by Indiana Dunes.
The Dunewood campground (part of the National Park Service) is by Beverly Shores, between Burns Harbor and Michigan City and just over a mile from the beach. But before we even dipped our toes in the water, we headed to Michigan. Hey, it’s another state we can say we’ve biked in! And it’s only about 12 miles away.
First up, Michigan City, Indiana, which we reached on a mix of roads and trails. This is novel: a giant cooling tower for a power plant right next to the trail. (Usually I expect a sewage treatment plant somewhere along a trail.) I can even feel a bit of the spray.
Up and over a hill (a dune?) is a secluded residential area facing Lake Michigan. Another surprise: what feels like at least one contractor on every block, renovating a home. They get fancier the further east you go, and crossing the state line into Michiana, Michigan, takes it up another notch.
On the way back, we stayed on the trail heading west from Michigan City for longer. It’s paved and weaves its way through native plantings. It’s along power lines and within sight of a freight line. I’m jealous that the local utility company agreed to this given its proximity to big power lines and substations and my utility company objects to extending a local trail because of a puny substation.
The trail is called the Calumet Trail and is part of the developing Marquette Greenway that will stretch from southern Chicago/the Indiana line through Northwest Indiana and into Michigan. Sadly, the paved portion disappeared maybe about a mile from the campground. New county? We definitely encountered some big puddles!
Or will that change as part of the improvements that are planned through the rest of this construction season?
At the Beverly Shores train stop for the South Shore line to/from Chicago, head north on Broadway to the beach. (If you notice orange arrows by a bike route sign, that’s for the Indiana Dunes Loop. We picked up a map of road routes put together by these people at the National Park visitor center.) Just to the left of the National Park beach (Lake View Beach) are five futuristic homes that a developer moved from the 1933 Century of Progress world’s fair in Chicago.
All were fascinating, but I restrained myself and didn’t take photos of all of them.
This one showed off the novelty of air conditioning … but they also discovered that all those windows can warm up the house.
Oh, there’s an airplane hangar in the back.
Florida house:
This one has a Lafayette connection:
You can book a fourth house, which showed off the longevity of cypress wood, as a short-term rental. It’s pricey!
Unfortunately you can’t tour any — except for one day a year via Indiana Landmarks, and tickets sell out super fast.
Once you’ve finished admiring the homes from the outside, follow the road until it takes you back to U.S. 12. There we found a crew working on what we think is an upgrade to the Calumet Trail. They certainly had delivered just to the west. Here’s some of what we found there:
We then used of roads and the paved Porter Brickyard Trail to reach another of Northwest Indiana’s trails: the paved 10.3-mile Prairie Duneland Trail from Chesterton though Portage to the Lake County line and Hobart. (Heads up: a food stop right on the trail by an underpass near the western end is Tate’s Place.) The trail connects there with the similarly long Oak Savannah Trail, but sorry we didn’t keep going.
Once back at the eastern end and then in downtown Chesterton … how could I resist an ice cream spot? And given the number of freight trains that go through this community of 14,000 is 80(!) a day, you might as well take a break too.
We got back to our campsite using roads, particularly another part of that Indiana Dunes Loop route with the orange arrows.
Practical stuff
1.The Dunewood campground is practically across U.S. 12 from the Beverly Shores train stop. It’s also just off U.S. Bicycle Route 36. It’s several miles from the National Park visitor center.
You need to book your spot online; sadly there is no in-person option. It’s $25 a night ($12.50 if you’ve got the senior pass), with no electricity or water at an individual campsite. Yes there are showers, toilets and drinking water
Two more things to know: It’s buggy, so bring plenty of mosquito repellant, and you can hear those freight whistles in the middle of the night, so bring good ear plugs and hope they will work.
2.Do stop at the visitors center if you can to pick up that handout with the bike routes.
3.If you’re on a long-distance trip, consider the train for a day trip to Chicago. Full fare (in 2026) is $11 each way from Beverly Shores.
4.Go watch a sunset at Lake View Beach! That’s the photo at the top.
Exploring by bicycle 