What are they DUNE-ing here?

The other day I went hiking on a trail that I had not visited before in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.


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They call it the Inland Marsh Trail, which is a series of sand dunes (mounds of wind-driven sand) that had formed about 10,000 years ago and then grew over with vegetation.  In some of the blowouts and other areas where sand had been eroded away, marshes and wetlands had formed that were isolated from nearby Lake Michigan, hence the name 'Inland Marsh.'

As I was meandering along the trail taking pictures of all of the unique plants and wildlife fluttering around me, I ran into a young couple who were just off the trail gazing at the ground rather dumbfounded.  The gentlemen asked me, "Excuse me, but have you seen lizards around here?"  "Yeah, well we have a couple different species of lizards around here," I responded with an as-a-matter-of-fact reply.  I then caught myself and realized these people were nothing short of mesmerized by what they had been looking at on their short hike, and I therefore was being asked to elucidate information on the reptilian encounter.  I then asked them slyly, "Have you seen the prickly pear cactus yet?"  "Yeah...what are those doing here??"

The section of the park we were in was really perplexing.  Six-lined race-runners (Cnemidophorus sexlineatus) were scurrying around an oak-savanna sand barren that had small clumps of eastern prickly pear cactus (Opuntia humifisa) intermixed with the dazzling bright orange of butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) (Photos A, B, and C, respectively).
Photo A:  A six-lined race-runner, a type of small lizard,
can be seen in the middle of the photo (click to enlarge).

Photo B:  The eastern prickly pear cactus is the only native member of its family east of the Mississippi River.

Photo C: Butterfly weed
The irony of it all is that we were less than a few miles from Gary, Indiana, one of the mostly urban blighted regions in the country.

The young couple I had spoken with lived in the west suburbs of Chicago, and they had never seen nor been to the park before.  "There's a reason this place is a national park!" I exclaim to them.  "They call it Chicago's backyard national park."  I continued onward to let the newcomers explore and investigate this urban jewel.

I just love moments like these; I love when people randomly stumble into amazing and bewildering things in the middle of places you would not expect to find.  The "ah-ha" moments of surprise and enthusiasm are often what drives people to support and save unique natural areas.  Perhaps what was so exciting about my encounter with these Chicagoland travelers was not just the chance to "show off" my knowledge of the native plants and animals of the area, but instead the opportunity to engage more people in conservation and stewardship of our natural resources in our parks and trails.

The next time you are out on a stroll in your neighborhood or in your hometown, take a diversion off of the beaten path and find a patch of woods, shrubs, old weedy fields, or other naturalized areas.  If you don't live near any parks or nature preserves, then check out a weedy abandoned lot.  You may find yourself so pleasantly surprised that you too will exclaim "What is this doing here??"

Bracken ferns (Pterdium aquilinum) along a trail in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.  Despite being only minutes from one of the most urban and blighted cities in the country, the park offers exciting natural escapes.   Get out in YOUR hometown and explore!  

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