Glenwood Trail Hike

Trail head on U.S. Highway 20 in Furnessville

Glenwood Trail (formerly Ly-co-ki-we Trail) sits in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in Northwest Indiana. Depending upon the route you take, it is anywhere from 3 - 7 miles more or less.

The terrain is mostly flat with the occasional small hill (6 - 10m) here and there. The bulk of the trail is firm sand, as the trail is shared with horses in the summer. Most of the trail is wooded. As my hike took place in November, there were few leaves left which increased visibility, but also allowed in more sound from surrounding highways. There are clearings throughout, and a few spots take you through wetlands. The path itself tends to be from .3 - 1.5m wide, and generally easy to find, even with the deluge of leaves.

NE part of the trail.

Unfortunately, the bulk of the trail tracks U.S. Highway 20 in the beginning and end, and U.S. Highway 12 to the north for much of the walk. This means lots of noise from trucks moving steel and supplies in and out of local steel mills. That was really the only downside, but enough to warrant making this trail a second choice.

Wildlife was for me, not very interesting; perhaps because I grew up around the area. There were brown squirrels, crows, and white-tailed deer. The image below was shot at about 30m away from the deer. There were in fact, two - one is hiding behind the trees to the right of the one in the picture.

Can you find the doe in this picture?

The highway noise notwithstanding, the walk was enjoyable. Being a Tuesday morning, I only ran into one other person on the trail, and the sand helped make for a good workout.

The full route as captured on my phone.

Details:
Starting elevation: 193 ft.
Peak Elevation: 217 ft.
Distance: 10.6 km
Time: 2.5 hours
Weather: Sunny, wind ~ 5 mph, 55 deg F.