Parking
Paved lot at the Calumet Dunes Trailhead, 1596 N. Kemil Road (300E), at U.S. 12. Year-round restrooms and potable water are at the lot; a park pass is required.
Overview
About Calumet Dunes Trail
Why go
- An easy paved loop with a good old-shoreline story.
- Year-round restrooms and potable water at the trailhead.
Heads up
- Very short, so it is not a destination hike.
- Slopes exceed ADA limits without proper support.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Indiana Dunes map
Full mapElevation623–648 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
4 active Indiana Dunes alerts
- CautionLake Michigan water safety after stormsMentions Lake Michigan, referenced in this guideAfter recent storms, E. coli levels are likely to exceed safe swimming standards; do not enter Lake Michigan after heavy rainfall or when a health-hazard warning is posted.Official details
- ClosurePortage Lakefront trail section closedThe section of the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk Trail along Burns Waterway is closed because erosional damage has made it unsafe.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Indiana Dunes Tour Guide
Your drive to Calumet Dunes Trail, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Indiana Dunes National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Indiana Dunes audio tourRecorded for this trailhead
Calumet Dunes: A Church Beside the Trail0:00 / 0:26
“Calumet Dunes trailhead is ahead, and the short paved loop is my pick for a twenty-minute woodland break.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Indiana Dunes Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Flowers Before the Leaves
- Glenwood Dunes: Picnic and Trail Choices
- Kemil Beach and the Great Marsh View
- The Ice That Left a Bog
- 51 audio storiesacross Indiana Dunes’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Bald Eagle, Sandhill Crane, White-tailed Deer, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 34 trails, 30 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Calumet Dunes Trail
A short walk on an old shorelineCalumet Dunes Trail is a 0.
Calumet Dunes Trail is a 0.6-mile paved loop from the Kemil Road lot through deciduous woods on a ridge that was Lake Michigan's shoreline more than 12,000 years ago. Allow about 20 minutes. It's an easy, low-effort stop for a little dune geology and woodland color, not a long hike. The full mapped route includes the short return around the front of the trailhead building to close the loop.
Follow the loop counter-clockwiseStart in the paved lot and walk counter-clockwise.
Start in the paved lot and walk counter-clockwise. Stay left at all three junctions: the first two meet routes in the Glenwood Dunes system, and the last meets Dunewood Trace. That keeps you on this loop instead of a longer branch. The path is easy to follow, with gentle ups and downs. Restrooms and potable water are at the trailhead, and a park pass is required. Dogs are allowed on a leash no longer than six feet; keep them off the equestrian portion of the Glenwood Dunes system. Cross-country skiers also use this path in winter.
The pavement has a catchThe route is paved, but its slopes exceed ADA limits.
The route is paved, but its slopes exceed ADA limits. Wheelchair users can use it with proper support, so don't treat the pavement as a guarantee of an easy roll. Ticks are present year-round; poison ivy can edge the path, and mosquitoes and flies can be bad in summer.
Three old shorelines, and a former churchAs Lake Michigan receded, it left three parallel dune ridges: Glenwood, Calumet and Tolleston.
As Lake Michigan receded, it left three parallel dune ridges: Glenwood, Calumet and Tolleston. Glenwood, Calumet and Tolleston rise to roughly 640, 620 and 605 feet above sea level; today's lake is about 580 feet. The trail crosses the Calumet ridge, so this short walk is a good way to see the landscape's shoreline history underfoot.
The building beside the lot opened in 1960 as Presbyterian Church of the Dunes. It later served as park headquarters and visitor center and now houses the USGS Lake Michigan Ecological Research Station. You'll pass it again when you walk around the front to finish the loop.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Indiana Dunes
85 sightingsBald EagleMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
48 sightingsSandhill CraneMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
114 sightingsWhite-tailed DeerMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
23 sightingsCoyoteMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
49 sightingsBeaverMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
13 sightingsBarred OwlMost seen around 6 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Indiana Dunes. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
