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Start at 1. Welcome to West Beach

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Free audio tour6 stories

Dune Succession Trail, West Beach, Indiana Dunes National Park, Indiana

A narrated loop of about three quarters of a mile at West Beach, from the Lake Michigan shore up 270 stairs and back: marram grass and buried cottonwoods, jack pines far from home, a pond the wind dug, the view to Chicago, the sand miners, and the scientist and the activists who made these dunes famous.

8 min of audio · 1 miles · Read the transcript

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    Getting started

    1. Start in the right placeThis tour begins at Welcome to West Beach. Start at the trailhead; the first story plays when you arrive.
    2. Let's hear itUse headphones or the phone speaker at a comfortable volume. Download the tour while you still have signal.
    3. Stories meet you thereYour phone's location starts each story automatically. Music flows straight into the narration. Keep this page open; it keeps the screen awake for GPS.
    4. You're ready to explorePark in the main West Beach lot (376 N County Line Rd, Gary). A park entrance pass is required to park here; in summer the fee is collected at the West Beach entrance station. Walk the paved path north toward the lake to the bathhouse: the trail starts just west of it. Download the tour first, then press Start at the trailhead. The loop is about three quarters of a mile with 270+ stairs and loose sand, and ends beside the parking lot. Stay on the trail.

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    Facts from the National Park Service (Dune Succession Trail virtual tour and brochure, West Beach and West Beach trails pages, plant succession, History & Culture, Indigenous Peoples and Early Settlement, Henry Chandler Cowles and Dorothy Buell pages). Trail geometry © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Music: Haydn, "The Lark" quartet, Adagio cantabile, Musopen String Quartet via Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Narration is AI-generated. Not an official National Park Service product.