PORTER, Ind. _ When Indiana Dunes jumped categories from national lakeshore to national park earlier this year, it joined the elite ranks of the country's most hallowed natural wonders, 61 sites whose esteemed members include Yellowstone and Yosemite.
The Dunes' climb up the National Park Service ladder is really just a matter of perception. The new title doesn't mean more money or resources get pumped into this 15,000-acre swath of marshes, prairies, oak savannas, forests and its namesake sand dunes scattered along a 15-mile stretch of Lake Michigan's southern shore.
But the name change certainly raises the profile of the Dunes, an already popular summer playground that takes on a mellower beauty in the fall. Throngs of beachgoers give way to hikers and motorists in search of fall colors and a serene escape into one of the most biologically diverse pieces of property in the National Park Service portfolio _ all within an hour's drive of Chicago.
Here's a guide to an autumn getaway in and around the country's newest national park.
