Indiana Dunes National Park Visitor Center

I suggest arriving after or close to when the visitors center closes due to a lot of the parking lot being closed for construction right now. We had to spin around the parking lot a couple of times until a spot opened up for our Class C Motorhome and two door Jeep. Cars parked in the long pull in space along the backside meant for longer vehicles. After 6 things get very quiet and it’s peaceful. There were 3 total Rv’s when we went to sleep but woke up to find 3 cars had also pulled in to spend the night.

Arrived a bit late in the evening there was enough spaces to park our vehicles in one spot, a nice place to have a short or long walk to stretch your legs after a long drive. In the morning got to go into the center to use the bathroom and see what activities they had. Some photo opportunities for the kiddies at the art work outside. Will stop here again.
Hopefully single cars don’t park in the long spots for RVs and people towing things there were several people parking in long spots with a regular vehicle

This was a really good spot for an overnight stay in our van. No one disturbed us and we got a full night of sleep. In the morning we checked out Indiana Dunes State Park, which was just a few minutes down the road. The downside is the visitor center closes and then you can’t access the bathrooms. We looked for other bathroom options, but didn’t see anything.

We stopped by on a Monday to see if they had any camping cancellations but they were fully booked. However, the ranger said we could park overnight with our RV in the visitor center parking lot. There are maybe 10 spaces for RVs. A few diagonal spaces, plus a parallel parking zone along a field of wildflowers and the really quaint pet area. This is dry camping, but they do have portable toilets for after hours, picnic tables, and garbage cans. We toured the visitor center exhibit -highly recommend! The movie has great information about the history and sensitive ecology they're working to preserve. This center is like a partnership gateway between the National Park and the State park. I was able to get my Indiana Dunes sticker and stamp here, too. We took a bike ride on the Calumet Trail but halfway through, we had to walk around quite a few flooded areas. Biked along shore a bit, saw the homes from the World's Faire, and dipped our feet in Lake Michigan. Got temporarily lost on return to our trailer, but it was a perfect day! We had good AT&T cell signal for streaming videos. It was a pleasant quiet sleep. Other RVs parked there, as well as a couple of vans and car-campers, but everyone was quiet and respectful. It's a lovely park and will return in future, reserving a campground spot ahead of time. There was some freeway noise, but not too bad. We were in a 33 ft trailer with a 20 ft truck.