Looking for Fall: Going West and a New National Park

Indiana Dunes National Park

After our visit in Pennsylvania, we started on our true quest for fall foliage.

On to Ohio

We left very early the next morning to head to Magee Marsh, which is near Port Clinton, Ohio, on the shore of Lake Erie. It was rainy and dark for the first part of our drive, which was unfortunate because it is quite possible that Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains were our best chance for glorious fall. But, we saw nothing but big trucks and dark highway and, then, after dawn, a few glimpses of yellow, red and orange. I guess getting an early start is not always a great idea. 

As the day brightened up, we did see some nice foliage, however.

Things were looking up (and this was at a rest stop!)

Before we finally made it to Port Clinton, we made two stops to see Lake Erie lighthouses. First was the Lorain West Breakwater Light, also called the Lorain Harbor Light.

Looks more like a house than a lighthouse

Built in 1917 on Lake Erie by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, it was taken out of service in 1965 when it was replaced by an automated light tower on a nearby breakwater.

 

The new light is quite small

The light was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Ring-billed Gulls in the parking lot by the Lorain Light

Next, we stopped at the Marblehead Lighthouse.

The Marblehead Light

The oldest lighthouse in continuous operation on the American side of the Great Lakes, it has guided sailors safely along the rocky shores of Marblehead Peninsula since 1822 and is still an active aid to navigation.

Marblehead, far more traditional-looking than the Lorain Light, is a 50-foot tower of native limestone on the tip of the (you guessed it) Marblehead Peninsula. 

Built to withstand fierce storms, the base is 25 feet in diameter, with walls five feet thick! It narrows to 12 feet at the top, with two-foot-thick walls.

That's me to the left (I am looking at Eagles)

Before it was automated, 15 lighthouse keepers (two of whom were women) in succession tended the beacon.

A pair of Bald Eagles in almost perfect unison fly by

Early keepers commuted until a keeper's house was built in 1821. Early on, the light was powered by 13 whale oil lamps with multiple metal reflectors, each sixteen inches in diameter. In 1858, the whale oil lamps were replaced by the light from a single kerosene lantern magnified by a Fresnel lens which created a highly visible fixed white light. In 1880, the original 1821 stone keeper's-house was replaced with the present large wood-frame Keeper's House. A lifesaving station was built west of the lighthouse in 1876.

Lake Erie isn't always this calm

The turn of the century ushered in new technology as well as structural changes including the addition of another 15 feet to the tower's height. A clock-like mechanism was installed to rotate the lantern, creating the appearance of a brilliant flash of light every 10 seconds. This system required that the lighthouse keeper crank the weights every three hours through the night to keep the lantern turning. An improved Fresnel lens with prism surfaces created an even more brilliant beacon.

Three views of the lighthouse

An electric light replaced the kerosene lantern in 1923, dramatically increasing the intensity of the signal. During World War II, when the lighthouse became strategically important for national defense, the Coast Guard assumed responsibility. The beacon was automated in 1958 and the exterior of the lighthouse tower was given a fresh coat of new stucco. 

A nice Park

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has maintained the property surrounding the lighthouse since 1972 and accepted ownership of the Marblehead Lighthouse tower in May 1998. The U.S. Coast Guard continues to operate and maintain the beacon.

In 2012, an LED light was installed. Its green signal flashes every six seconds and is visible for 11 nautical miles. The green distinguishes the lighthouse signal from white lights coming from air beacons.

The lighthouse is now part of the nine-acre Marblehead Lighthouse State Park.

Magee Marsh

A visit to a major birding site

While in Port Clinton, we visited Magee Marsh twice – once in the afternoon right after we arrived ...

A pretty reflection on the road in

... and once in the early morning the next day before heading to Indiana ...

Sunrise and Trumpeter Swans (Mom and her two "teens")

From a birding perspective, it was disappointing. Not unexpected because I knew fall migration had already pretty much finished, but still I had hoped for more.

Male and female Northern Cardinals

Situated on the southern shore of Lake Erie, the Marsh is famous as a prime stopover for North American Warblers during spring migration. 

Is the Yellow-rumped Warbler angry that he hasn't migrated yet?

During early May, it is the site of one of the United States’ most popular Birding Festival, aptly called The Biggest Week in American Birding. Thousands of birds, mainly Warblers, stop here to forage before making the long flight over the Great Lakes as they migrate to Canada for the summer. I was scheduled to attend in 2020 (we know how that went) and am hoping to go within the next two years.

Black-capped Chickadee (a bird I see all the time at home)

Magee Marsh has a raised boardwalk that makes it easier (but not easy) to see and photograph tiny Warblers as they hop around in the bushes which, because the boardwalk is raised, are at eye-level. 

Eye-level, but deep in shade; this is a White-throated Sparrow

Both when we arrived and the next morning there were birds; actually more birds than I had seen anywhere else on this trip so far (at 983 birds on my Life List, I was hoping for a bonanza to push me to 1,000). But, alas, none were lifers …

By far, Yellow-rumped Warblers were the most common bird at Magee Marsh

… and, with the exception of some cooperative Rusty Blackbirds, none offered better photo ops than I had had elsewhere ... 

Male non-breeding Rusty Blackbird (look at those eyes!)

Still, it was a pleasant visit. It was nice to walk peacefully along the quiet boardwalk. It was nice to get a feeling for what it might be like in May.

Of course, there were lots of Red-winged Blackbirds

We got some nice fall foliage ... 

Foliage with Canada Geese

I saw some critters ... 

A Groundhog (AKA Woodchuck) and an Eastern Cottontail

.. and, we had some Great Lakes whitefish in Port Clinton ...

Ya gotta have it; Photo: Scott Stevens

After Magee, we pressed on, wiggle-waggling north through Michigan and then down the lakeshore to Indiana. We stopped to see some pretty fall colors ...

A pretty field in southern Michigan

... and actually happened upon a Fox Hunt! 

This was unexpected! Left photo: Scott Stevens

No, we didn’t see any Foxes, which was probably a good thing. 

Of course lots of Foxes could be hiding in there

We also stopped briefly in Benton Harbor, Michigan, where we witnessed Lake Michigan in its full fury, with large waves thrashing the pier under blue skies. 

A windy, but pretty, day

We walked about for awhile, admiring the lakeside art …

Richard Hunt's stainless steel And You, Seas is nearly 50 feet tall

Indiana Dunes National Park

Indiana Dunes National Park is my 62nd of the nation’s 63 National Parks. You may wonder why I had not been to this Park before because I have certainly been in the area. Well, it wasn’t named a National Park until 2019. 

Transition to a National Park, 2019; Photo: Dunes Learning Center

Before that, it had been Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore since 1966. We had been by, but never stopped in. So, now I was getting another check on my list. The National Park runs for about 20 miles along the southern shore of Lake Michigan and covers 15,349 acres in several unconnected units.

The Park has lots of nice facilities and boardwalks

The Park includes dunes, most of which are covered with vegetation rather than being just exposed sand (the kind of dunes we are used to in Colorado). Of course, the vegetation protects them from wind. And, being a Park protects them from people.

A typical dune

The Park protects the environment

Becoming a National Park took over 120 years. 

It started when an article on the unique flora of the dunes in the 1899 Botanical Gazette by University of Chicago botanist Henry Chandler Cowles sparked a movement to preserve the dunes habitat. 

In 1916, National Parks Director Stephen Mather, who thought it wasn't Park material, reluctantly held hearings in Chicago on a "Sand Dunes National Park." 

The desire to preserve the area was fueled by the removal of the “Hoosier Slide,” a large dune that was decimated when its sand was transported to the Ball Brothers and Hemingray Glass Co. plants in Muncie, Indiana. The Hoosier Slide was gone by 1920 and a power plant sits on the site today.

Lake Michigan

In 1926, Indiana Dunes State Park opened. In the 1950s, a desire to maximize economic development through a "Port of Indiana" spurred more interest in preservation. In late 1966, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore became a reality, followed by four subsequent expansions in 1976, 1980, 1986 and 1992.

A lovely day

Four major glacial lake periods created the Indiana Dunes: Lake Chicago, 14,000 years ago; Lake Algonquin, 9,000 years ago; Lake Chippewa, 7,000 years ago; and the Nipissing Great Lakes stage, 4,000 years ago. Once the glaciers had fully retreated from the Lake Michigan basin, strong currents created shallow inland bays with a wide sand spit between each bay and the open lake. Over time, the sand spits merged with the far shoreline, forming interdunal ponds. 

Dune and pond

Each sand spit became a dune ridge. As the ponds filled in and wind built the outer sand ridges higher, the ponds dried up and only streams remained. As the shoreline moved northward, new ridges formed along with additional streams, now slower and less powerful, and the process duplicated itself.

The Park is lovely, with miles of unadulterated shore, undulating dunes, some drifting sand and pockets of civilization, including some pretty amazing mid-century architecture.

Left, homes in the Park; right, Pavilion: Right and upper left photos: Scott Stevens

The Indiana Dunes Pavilion, which is in the adjacent Indiana Dunes State Park, was recently renovated to its late 1920s glory.

We couldn't see inside; this is how it looked in 1930

We walked around the area early on a Sunday morning. The Pavilion wasn’t open, but we did witness what appeared to be a Gospel singing group making a video on the lakeshore.

A pretty setting for a video

The whole time we were at the Dunes, we were virtually alone. After all, it was cool and windy. But, it was easy to see how the area is probably very busy and crowded during the summer. It’s a beautiful beach near some very highly populated areas.

In addition to space for swimming and sunning, there is lots of hiking, including the "Diana of the Dunes Dare."

Quite a climb

"Diana of the Dunes" was actually Chicagoan Alice Mabel Gray, who had worked for the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., after graduating from the University of Chicago. Then, in 1915, she moved to the dunes, where she lived alone in the wilds. The "dare" is (apparently) a one-mile hike that climbs up and down "Diana's Dune" and features educational signs about vegetation, dune formation and Diana. Unfortunately, every write-up I found was creative, but not informative. I guess we should have done the hike!

Change in Plans

Two things started working in concert to change our plans. First, we realized that weather would make traveling to northern Michigan difficult, if not impossible. 

Nope! Photo: Michigan Live

So, we decided to cancel that part of our trip and make other plans, but we had not decided yet what we would do after visiting my sister in Illinois.

What??? Sign me up!

Then, while I was making a restroom stop at the Indiana Dunes Visitor Center on Saturday, Scott happened to notice a brochure about Saw-whet Owl banding at Indiana Dunes! 

I have been trying to find a Saw-whet for years. I looked into it and it was in five days! And, we were heading west the next morning. If I were by myself, I would plan to go back. But, I couldn’t ask Scott to do that! He already indulges my birding more than he needs to. But, then, he suggested it.

So, I make us reservations to attend the banding on the following Thursday, booked us another night at the very nice Best Western in Chesterton, Indiana, where we were staying and crossed my fingers that the banding would be successful.

Scott took this from our hotel room

We shall see.

Trip date: October 10-22, 2022