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Mike_Up's avatar
Mike_Up
Explorer
Apr 20, 2015

Hometown Pride: State Park in USA Today Top 10 List!

Well not quite home town but local area where I see it every day.

Indiana Dunes State Park was number 7 out of 6,000 state parks voted on.

It has very nice large sites for 'travel trailers'. In fact being that Indiana State parks usually don't offer water or septic hookups, it's Travel Trailer friendly since we're self contained with water. Indiana State Parks do offer Electric hookup but that's it.

If you're in a Pop Up or Tent, it also has some of the nicest bath houses I've ever seen. Very clean, private, and well kept.

Here's some recent pics of the park.

Had many more from recent trips but never re-posted to Flicker after Webshots went down.

USA Today's Top 10 State Parks
  • kknowlton's avatar
    kknowlton
    Explorer II
    Apr 20, 2015
    Nice bunch of SPs. I suspect the voting was somewhat skewed by population; I'd sure have ranked Custer a little higher. :)
  • rbpru's avatar
    rbpru
    Explorer II
    Apr 20, 2015
    Grew up with the Dunes, lots of fun and a great beach. The grandkids still love it.

    7th out of 6000, maybe, but certainly a pleasant place to camp.
  • travelnutz's avatar
    travelnutz
    Explorer II
    Apr 20, 2015
    kknowlton,

    Well, if population skewed the voting, then The Porcupine Mtns State Park would have been very far down the list but instead it was neck and neck with Letchworth State Park which barely pulled ahead on about the last day of the voting. It's in the middle of over 40 million in population while the entire U.P. of Michigan has a mere less than 300,000 population and the close state on Wisconsin's northern half is also very low in population also. I will agree that more local people who don't have a lot of choices in good state parks will band together voting for the only one they are know or are familiar with and don't have a clue as to what a superb state park really is or looks like.

    Notice that NO western, northwestern, or southwestern state parks were in the top ten or even close? Nor were any Gulf Coast or deep south parks ranked high. Hunting Island State Park is on the East Coast and we've been there.
  • BubDelicious's avatar
    BubDelicious
    Explorer
    Apr 20, 2015
    Hmmm. More like the top 10 out of 20.

    "A panel of experts picked the initial 20 nominees, and the top 10 winners were determined by popular vote."
  • gaymeadowsman's avatar
    gaymeadowsman
    Explorer
    Apr 20, 2015
    Enjoy them ALL while you can. Alabama is is working out plans to close 15 of it's 22 state parks due to massive budget cuts. Even though the parks are ranked as the number 1 tourist attraction we have.
  • rv2go's avatar
    rv2go
    Explorer II
    Apr 20, 2015
    AngryBert-63 wrote:
    Deception Pass State Park - Whidbey Island, Washington.

    Our favorite campsite is 8 miles from the house.

    We have been there and loved it also.

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