It's 6:04am. We are 58 miles from Chicago, we got a car full of dogs, half a dozen doughnuts, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. Okay, we are not wearing sunglasses and we are driving east into the sunrise on warm and extremely humid morning. So humid that there is a haze blocking the sunrise so even this color photo makes it look like a black & white sunrise.
We drove out to Mount Baldy early this morning because it is going to be in the 90's soon with 90 percent humidity. I love that the National Park Service has so many great events at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore all year long.
Nola took this selfie because she also loves her local National Park...since she has short legs and no thumbs, she used the timer feature on her cell phone.
It must have rained here overnight. There were puddles in the parking lot and the trail through the woods was wet sand. Chrissy & Oslo walking barefoot to the beach.
The only way to climb Mount Baldy is on a ranger led hike...I gotta sign up for one soon.
Nola is so excited to be at the beach...here she is waiting for everyone to catch up.
The sun is trying to break through the haze.
The two old timers heading down the dune to the beach.
The last chance to see the drops of water on the dune grass before the sun breaks through and dries them.
The somewhat muted sunrise over the dunes.
Nola loves Lake Michigan...once again she ran right in to cool off.
These two have to investigate everything on the beach.
Every beach has had so much dune destruction in the past year that I have seen many of these structures or natural art works on all the beaches.
I know your dogs must be leashed on the NPS properties. I only let Oslo off leash if no one else is on the beach. He loves having the freedom to go anywhere and he moves much faster off leash.
I love the difference of light early in the morning. This is looking east and sun isn't high enough to light up the beach...
...but looking west the low angle sun gives everything an orange glow.
A similar shot as above but with more lake in it where the sun hits the water away from the beach.
Another extremely calm morning on Lake Michigan
As we hiked west toward Central Beach, there were a few obstacles. There were so many trees down on the beach that it started to bother me.
I come here to get away for a couple of hours but sometimes all the natural destruction of the dunes gets to me.
I truly love this place but I wonder what it will look like 5, 10 or 20 years from now.
My two hiking buddies...I think we lost Chrissy in the downed trees.
A beautiful reminder that Mother Nature is a bad mother...watch your mouth.
Oslo was leading the way and quickly realized he could not climb over or go under any of this...
...so he decided to swim around the trees.
The collapsing dunes completely bare of any vegetation.
We finally found Chrissy.
The old man just kept moving on...
...we stopped him at Wild Women Creek.
I sat on a tree trunk that fell across the creek. The west side of this creek is Central Beach. Over the course of this summer, I have hiked across almost all the beaches from the Indiana Dunes State Park to Michigan City.
Oslo refused to rest out here and didn't want to turn around. So he went into the lake with me and Nola. Here he is shaking himself dry.
The Odd Couple walking down the beach.
I was happy to see new grass growing on the dunes.
Even though these look like rocks, they will crumble. I think this is compressed sand from the bottom of the exposed dunes.
Oslo finally decided to rest...
...and Nola stayed alert for a possible attack...
...while Oslo cleaned himself like a cat.
Another quick dip in the lake and Oslo has his happy face.
A girl and her dog.
Oslo seems to amaze me a lot lately. He charged right up this dune.
It looks like another great day to visit the beaches today.
Until next time...my old friend, Lake Michigan.
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