{"id":14989,"date":"2016-11-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=14989"},"modified":"2023-06-14T12:00:53","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T19:00:53","slug":"5-best-national-parks-arent-national-parks-upper-midwest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/hike\/5-best-national-parks-arent-national-parks-upper-midwest","title":{"rendered":"5 of the Best National Parks That Aren\u2019t \u201cNational Parks\u201d in the Upper Midwest"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re overlooking NPS units in favor of only national parks, trust us, you\u2019re missing out.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) manages 59 National Parks, the NPS also maintains 354 other sites that are collectively called \u201cnational parks.\u201d These remaining lowercase parks comprise of everything from a room in Philadelphia (Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial<\/a>) to 1,542,776 acres of desert (Mojave National Preserve<\/a>), and hundreds of other designations diverse in both attributes and titles.<\/p>\n

While some of those sites sound like you\u2019d expect (the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site is a house), others, like White Sands National Monument<\/a> and its 143,000 acres of crystal white sand dunes, are a little less obvious. Helping expose people to these 354 lesser-known sites is one of the goals of my three-year world record road trip<\/a> to all 413 U.S. National Park Service sites (big N and little n parks all included) in an effort to explore and share all<\/em> of America\u2019s natural wonders.<\/p>\n

After crisscrossing the Upper Midwest in the first few months of my journey, I\u2019ve selected five of my favorite national parks in the region to add to your bucket list.<\/p>\n

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore<\/h2>\n

Word on the street is that this NPS site is lobbying to be converted to a National Park. This re-designation is commonplace in the park system (take Acadia National Park for example<\/a>), but Indiana Dunes certainly has footing to stand on\u2014at least very sandy footing.<\/p>\n

These 15 miles of shoreline along Lake Michigan\u2019s southern tip make Chicago and all its urbanity feel like a far-off world, even as its skyline looms in the distance. It\u2019s that proximity that makes Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore so special. Unlike most natural wonders that are multiple-hour drives from major population centers, residents of the greater Chicago area can take public transportation and reach the site within an hour.<\/p>\n

Once there, the miles of bike trails, recreational options like kiteboarding or surfing, and the hiking of seemingly endless dunes, means you can fill an entire weekend with activities inside the park\u2019s 15,000 acres. And with $18-a-night camping<\/a> available inside the park\u2019s borders, it\u2019s an affordable getaway as well.<\/p>\n

[Top Hike]<\/strong> Right next door to the national lakeshore, <\/strong>Trail 9<\/a> in Indiana Dunes State Park leads you through 3.6 miles of forest, dunes, and dramatic views of Lake Michigan.<\/p>\n

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If you can\u2019t celebrate our National Park Service\u2019s 100th birthday at a national park, then tune in tonight at 9pm CST to Lakeshore Public Television and watch \u201cShifting Sands\u201d\u2014a documentary that honors the efforts of environmentalists, industrialists and ordinary citizens to work together to preserve a national ecological treasure: the Indiana Dunes. #ShiftingSandsMovie #NPS100 #findyourpark (Photo credit: Pete Doherty). #indu50 #nps100 #nps #indu #findyourpark #encuentratuparque<\/a><\/p>\n

A photo posted by Indiana Dunes Nat’l Lakeshore (@indianadunesnps) on