Dunes Safety

Sand Dunes at the Lakeshore are similar to a desert environment, that run along the shoreline of the park.

• Make a Plan - Bring a buddy and let someone know your plans.Cell phone coverage is not reliable in the Lakeshore especially in the dunes or wilderness areas.
• Avoid Dehydration - Pack least 2 liters of water per person.
• Protect your Feet - Take footwear. Hot sand can cause severe burns on feet.
• Bring sunscreen and sun protection.
• Pack snacks.
• Stay on marked hiking trails - The trails in the dunes are marked with blue or green-topped posts.
• Resist walking on ridges or steep sandy slopes. These can be hazardous especially in winter or early spring and you can trigger a sand slide

Lake Michigan Overlook Safety

• Although going down the bluff is not prohibited, you are encouraged not to do so for your safety and the safety of others below you.
• Going down the bluff can be dangerous to people below you as you dislodge rocks that roll down the bluff.
• The climb back up is very strenuous. Climbing the bluff also causes significant erosion to the bluff.

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Water Safety

Lake Michigan is Beautiful but Dangerous

The shorelines of each Great Lake are distinctive and stunning, but Lake Michigan stands out as the deadliest of the five Great Lakes. Lake Michigan has had over 250 recorded cases of swimmers caught in rip currents since 2002. That is doubled of the other four Great Lakes when combined. Lake Michigan also has the most drownings, with an annual death toll near the total sum of the other four Great Lakes. This lake is particularly dangerous due to its shape, which features two unbroken, opposing shorelines that span 307 miles north and south. The unique shape creates the opportunity for deadly rip currents.

What is a Rip Current?

A rip current is a water current that can occur near beaches with breaking waves. A rip is a strong, localized, and narrow current of water which moves away from the shore, cutting through the lines of breaking waves like a river running out to deeper waters. A rip current is strongest and fastest near the surface of the water and can pull swimmers out from the shore at speeds up to eight feet per second for hundreds of yards.

Be on the lookout this summer for rip currents on Lake Michigan. Before your next visit to the beach, learn how to spot a rip current and what to do if you get caught in one. Always check the local beach forecast for any warnings, and exercise caution.

More information about rip currents can be found at the following websites: www.ripcurrents.noaa.gov and www.usla.org

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Ticks

Ticks are common throughout the Lakeshore with a high population located on North Manitou Island. The most commonly found tick at the Lakeshore are the American Dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis) and the Black-Legged tick (Ixodes scapularis), also commonly known as the Deer tick.

Ticks can be active anytime during the year, especially when temperatures are warmer than 40° F. Ensure you check yourself, your children, and your pets regularly for ticks.

Prevention:

• Hike in the center of trails.
• Avoid wooded and bushy areas.
• Wear light colored, long-sleeved shirts and tucked-in pants.
• Wear insect repellent containing DEET according to manufacturer's instructions.
• Carefully inspect your clothing and gear for ticks after recreating in the outdoors.
• Shower as soon as possible to wash off and easily find ticks.
• Remove ticks immediately and notify your doctor if you get a fever or rash.

Tick Removal

If an attached tick is found:

1. Use fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin's surface as possible.
2. Pull upward with steady, even pressure. Don't twist or jerk the tick; this can cause the mouth-parts to break off and remain in the skin. If this happens, remove the mouth-parts with tweezers. If you are unable to remove the mouth easily with clean tweezers, leave it alone and let the skin heal.
3. After removing the tick, thoroughly clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol, an iodine scrub, or soap and water.
4. Do not use folklore remedies such as "painting" the tick with nail polish or petroleum jelly, or using heat to make the tick detach from the skin. Your goal is to remove the tick as quickly as possible.

For more information, check out this article on ticks and tickborne diseases. To learn more about Lyme disease, which is the number one vector-borne disease in the United States, and is spread by certain tick-bites, visit the CDC's Lyme disease webpage.

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Food Storage

Every person who visits the Lakeshore has a chance to keep bears (and all wildlife) wild by making sure their food, beverages, and trash are stored properly.
"Food" includes any item with a scent, regardless of packaging. This may include items that you do not consider food including empty containers, soaps, cosmetics, & toiletries.

How can you help?

Black bears, raccoons, coyotes, squirrels, crows and other wildlife are enticed by human food left in campsites, on picnic tables, offered from an outstretched hand, or in litter.

Do not feed wildlife! Feeding animals or allowing them access to human food causes a number of problems:

• Changes Behavior - animals lose their instinctive fear of humans. This lack of fear causing "nuisance" animals to be more unpredictable and dangerous when they encounter humans.
• Danger for Endangered - Food left unattended attracts gulls, ravens and crows to picnic areas and beaches. Our beach areas provide nesting habitat to the federally endangered piping plover. These same birds will prey upon plover eggs.
• Remember, Garbage Kills!

How to Store Your Food

You may store food inside your car or RV (out of sight, with windows completely closed). This includes keeping coolers inside of vehicles, some animals will check coolers to see if they are latched.

Treat your trash like food: keep it in a latched container in your car or dispose of it in designated trash receptacle. DO NOT leave food, including pet food, sitting out on picnic tables, on the beach or in cooking areas unattended, even for a few minutes. Do not use fire rings to dispose of food, cooking grease, or food scraps.

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Black Bears

In Michigan, most black bears have black or extremely dark brown fur. Black bears are solitary animals, with the exception of females accompanied by cubs or yearlings and during the breeding season, when mature males and females can be seen together.

A bear sighting is a rare occurrence and will be a memory to cherish. Remember to treat wildlife with respect. Stay at least 150 feet (50 yards) away from the bear. Enjoy watching how a bear moves through the landscape or forages for natural foods.

Bear Basics

• Always stay 150 feet (50 yards) away from bears.

• Never surround a bear.

• Never get between a sow and her cubs.

• If you are too close to a bear, increase the distance between you and the bear.

1) Stay calm; if you get excited, the bear may get excited!
2) Stop. Avoid direct eye contact.
3) Slowly leave- do not run. Running or sudden movement may threaten a bear.
4) Speak softly to the bear to alert it to your presence. Do not yell.
5) Fight back, if attacked (use rocks, sticks, flashlight, bare hands).Do not approach the bear.

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Shelf Ice Safety

What is Shelf Ice?

Although shelf ice appears solid, it provides only a false sense of security. Shelf ice forms when breaking waves and spray freeze in frigid air temperatures, creating irregularly patterned ice full of cracks, crevices, and holes. Shelf ice is an unstable formation that builds from the beach out to the lake, without freezing to the lake bottom. Due to the nature of its structure and fluctuating temperatures above and below freezing, shelf ice is unpredictable and unsafe to step on.

Shelf ice is not a continuous sheet. Thinned or weakened areas may be hidden, and the ice can collapse like a trapdoor leading to a plunge into icy waters. Entering the water, your body goes into shock, and the nature of the ice makes it difficult to remove yourself. Hypothermia begins in a matter of minutes. Wave action and fragile ice obstructs rescue potential. Death is likely.

Viewing Shelf Ice Safely

When covered in snow and ice, even frequent lakeshore visitors can have trouble determining where the beach ends and where the lake begins. To be safe, view the shelf ice from the base of the first sand dune or further inland. Only view shelf ice from solid ground, and never attempt to climb it.

Read more about shelf ice on the Indiana Dunes National Park Shelf Ice webpage.

Graphic alt text:

Infographic of a cross cut of white shelf ice mounds atop water along a beach. There is a hole in the shelf ice mound and a stick figure person appears to be trapped in the water, as if they have fallen through the hole. Another stick figure stands atop the mound looking into the hole. A third stick figure stands on the beach. Text "This graphic demonstrates how a hidden hole in shelf ice mounds can lead to icy waters of the lake beneath, with little chance of climbing out."