Name: Dunes Heritage hike
Start: 2025-11-15T11:00:00-06:00
End: 2025-11-15T14:00:00-06:00
Location: Indiana Dunes National Park Chellberg Farm

if you can't find parking at the main lot, there is a huge overflow parking area across Mineral Springs rd.

meet near the washrooms at Chellberg Farm at 11 CT, 12 ET

this hike will be held jointly with

Michiana Adventures [https://www.meetup.com/meetup-group-yjezdrty/](https://www.meetup.com/meetup-group-yjezdrty/)

dear hiking friends--

today's hike features a cross section of the history of the region during the 19th and early 20th centuries. we have taken this hike every year since 2002, except for 2020.

please check the weather before departure and have appropriate clothing and equipment [https://weather.com/weather/today/l/46301:4:US](https://weather.com/weather/today/l/46301:4:US) . bring along a lunch which we will eat on the trail, plus enough water (one quart minimum).

this hike will have a short (1.8 mi), a longer (4.0 mi), or a supercharged option (??) depending on which you choose to take. you can make these choices on the spot depending on your endurance, the weather, or your whims, once on the trail.

remember, this is a fee area--you must DISPLAY A PERMIT to park here--so before you come to the lot, make sure you study the rather Byzantine and non-user-friendly fee structure at the National Park website

https://www.nps.gov/indu/planyourvisit/fees.htm

i'm not sure how much they enforce this off season, or what the fines are, but be informed and beware.

this is a complex route, with lots of unexpected twists and turns--if you get ahead of Eileen or Jonathan, make sure to stop whenever you come to a junction with another trail or road, or in any place where the trail is ambiguous or confusing. also, make sure you know where your car is parked.

i also encourage you all to take and post pictures to the site. if you don't know how to post to the site, text pictures to me, and i will post them.

i decided to tweak our route so that we hit more of the points of historic interest first, and moved the long walk across the prairie, over the river, and through the woods to later in the hike.

we will gather near the restrooms off the parking lot, and wait till 11:20 CT for all to arrive. then we will turn right at the valley's edge and walk a short distance till we come to the Chellberg Farm.

this is a preserved farmstead which was owned by Swedish immigrants to the region, and run in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. there usually are animals in the farmyard and the barn.

after that, we will ascend some bridges and stairs up a streambed and across a road to the Bailly Family Cemetery. it is quite elaborate for a pioneer graveyard, with a stonework mound and a tall wooden cross, and carved gravestones with passages from the Bible and the Apocrypha.

we will tarry there awhile, then cross Oak Hill rd, and begin the west leg of the Bailly-Chellberg trail. after a short distance, we will come to a junction where you can make a choice.

if you go right with Eileen, we will walk about 3/4 of a mile through the woods, then over a boardwalk, and cross the Little Calumet river on a bridge, then ascend a hill, and cross the Mnoke' Prairie, then back over the Little Cal, and arrive at the Bailly Homestead, and back to the parking lot for a total day's hike of 4.0 miles.

if you go left with Jonathan, within a half a mile, we will come to the Bailly Homestead, with preserved buildings covering about a century of construction from the family of fur trapper-trader Joseph Bailly and his descendants. we will look around for a while, then arrive back at the parking lot in 0.3 miles, for a total day's hike of 1.8 miles.

the supercharged option: Jonathan--who is a lean, mean hiking machine--is willing to extend the hike once he is back to the starting point with the short version via the Porter-Brickyard trail, that crosses route 12 and accesses the Cowles Bog trail complex.

this set of trails is shaped like a snowman, and you can fashion a trail of various lengths, depending on how many balls of the snowman you hike along. so if you would like to hike this option, leave a remark for Jonathan, or see him sometime before or during the hike.

hope you can attend this year,

Rick

directions:

from US 12, turn south on Mineral Springs rd; enter the parking lot marked "Chellberg Farm"; if the parking lot is full, there is ample overflow parking across the road; try to arrive by 11:00; we will wait till 11:20, then depart on foot.

from US 20, turn north on Mineral Springs rd; enter the parking lot marked "Chellberg Farm"; if the parking lot is full, there is ample overflow parking across the road; try to arrive by 11:00; we will wait till 11:20, then depart on foot.

to view photos of previous hikes by this group at this location, see below.

our group has actually been doing this hike since November 24, 2002, but photography was in its infancy then, so i don't have albums for those years. : )

2009 https://www.meetup.com/ricks-hiking-fun-group/photos/765778/

2010 https://www.meetup.com/ricks-hiking-fun-group/photos/1167250/

2011 https://www.meetup.com/ricks-hiking-fun-group/photos/4540442/

2012 https://www.meetup.com/ricks-hiking-fun-group/photos/11801082/

2013 https://www.meetup.com/ricks-hiking-fun-group/events/130537162/

2014 https://www.meetup.com/ricks-hiking-fun-group/photos/25755614/

2016 https://www.meetup.com/ricks-hiking-fun-group/photos/26705361/

2016 https://www.meetup.com/ricks-hiking-fun-group/photos/27435567/

2017 https://www.meetup.com/ricks-hiking-fun-group/photos/28364881/

2018 https://www.meetup.com/ricks-hiking-fun-group/photos/29430687/

2019 https://www.meetup.com/ricks-hiking-fun-group/photos/30513495/

2021 https://www.meetup.com/ricks-hiking-fun-group/photos/31585359/

2023 https://www.meetup.com/ricks-hiking-fun-group/photos/32434940/

2023 https://www.meetup.com/ricks-hiking-fun-group/photos/33702266/

2024 https://www.meetup.com/ricks-hiking-fun-group/photos/34993307/

Eileen

Jonathan Bjerk

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