Hoosier Country

Brimming with Midwestern charm, the northwest corner of the Hoosier State is a farming mecca that boasts some of the most welcoming and picturesque small towns in the country. But that’s just the beginning. Sandy lakeside beaches, all-night Vegas-style card tables and an unmatched brewery scene greet visitors to this burgeoning — and unexpected — vacation destination.

Doing the Dunes

The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is the biggest attraction in the state’s northwest region, and for good reason. Together, the National Lakeshore and Indiana Dunes State Park, which collectively stretch from Gary to Michigan City along the coast of Lake Michigan, offer several miles of trails and wildly diverse, 15,000-plus acres of dunes, swamp, bogs marshes and prairies.

Views of Lake Michigan from the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

Birds, Bikes and Fish

Bird-watchers flock to the area to catch glimpses of the 350 species that roost here, and hikers and bikers will have no shortage of easily accessible backcountry routes to explore along the winding coastline. Start with a jaunt on the Calumet Trail, off which many smaller loops begin and end. Anglers, too, will have their hands full. Indiana’s stretch of shore on Lake Michigan means a coast full of salmon, trout and perch, all of which can be caught in abundance on excursions organized daily in towns along the water.

Back on the Farm

It doesn’t get more local than Fair Oaks Farms. Despite being one of the largest working dairy farms in the U.S., the employees aren’t too busy to host educational tours and hands-on exhibits that highlight the life cycle of the cows, pigs and crops that keep America fed. At the adjacent café and restaurant, you can enjoy ice cream made fresh at the dairy next door.

Homespun Sweets

Head north to the town of Merrillville just east of Interstate 65 for a can’t-miss visit to Albanese Confectionery. For decades, the establishment has been heralded as one of the best candy-makers in the Midwest, famous for using American nuts and fruit in their chocolate creations, as well as for their one-of-a-kind flavored gummies.

Hoosier History

The area’s pioneer past is on full display at living history museums like the Buckley Homestead. Hosts dressed in period garb recount the daily lives of lake country’s settlers. At the Bailly Homestead and Chellberg Farm site in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore area, visitors learn how the pioneers harvested crops, tapped maple trees for syrup and traded fur with the Native American population to survive on the rugged frontier. No trip to the lakefront would be complete, though, without a night rolling the dice at one of the dockside casinos that dot the shoreline in Michigan City, Hammond and Gary.

Fall colors and fresh produce set the scene for harvest at the Chellberg Farm.

For More Information

South Shore Convention and
Visitors Authority

219-989-7770

www.southshorecva.com

Indiana Office of Tourism Development

800-677-9800

www.in.gov/visitindiana