Trail #8 at the Indiana Dunes State Park traverses the peaks of the three tallest dunes in Indiana and is called the 3 Dunes Challenge. All told, hiking the full 1.5 mile loop will have you climbing a total of ~550′ of elevation in soft sand with inclines as steep as 30º. On a hot humid day in the summer it would be brutal. As it was, I hiked this trail on a 50 degree day in December and it was a workout, but not too bad.
This relief map provides a hint of the up and down nature of the trail. The hike starts and ends at the bottom right and the three summits are marked with X’s.
Ascending to the summit of Mt. Jackson. The slope is steeper than it appears in this photo, in normal conditions the soft sand would result in each step forward sliding 3/4 of a step back. However between some recent rain and overnight lows below freezing the sand was a bit firmer than it normally is, so the footing was not too bad.
One of the interesting things you can see in the Dunes are the roots of large trees which have been exposed by sand erosion. In the older dunes further inland this does not happen as the humus has had enough time to build up a more substantial soil.
The summit of Mt. Jackson.
Although the color palette is dominated by the muted oranges and browns of early winter, there is still greenery and where it does occur it tends to be bright and intense like this patch of moss.
The last few feet of the ascent to the top of the second peak was quite steep. Here you can see more exposed tree roots.
At the top of Mt. Holden. If this had been a hot and humid mid-summer day I’d probably have been pretty wiped out by this point.
Looking back during the descent from Mt. Holden.
I always enjoy finding these little orange lichens.
There are stairs leading to the last and highest of the three peaks. This ascent is steep enough that the stairs are appreciated. About halfway up it became apparent just how much the previous two peaks had worked my legs.
And here we are at the summit of Mt. Tom.
Along the ridge of Mt. Tom.
Looking up the back side of Mt. Tom.
No the camera is not tilted, it is actually quite level. Many of the trees however are rather tilted.