Some Lake Michigan beaches making a comeback

A gull looked out from a perch and surveyed Lake Michigan’s southern shore. With a turn of its head, the bird clocked visitors in search of beach glass, a boy to the right rolling down the dunes and a brave spring swimmer fully submerged. A long sweep of sand under a bright sky called out to the Memorial Day crowd.

Lake Michigan is easing up — after swallowing shorelines, flooding coasts and breaking records — and just in time for beach season.

Levels have lowered from record highs as part of an overall Great Lakes downswing. The receding water has been welcomed by some beach towns and lakefront parks that weathered destruction in recent years.

A group of Great Lakes officials estimated at least $500 million of damage in cities last year.

The shift doesn’t mean shoreline communities are in the clear. Many are still working to preserve what’s left of disappearing bluffs, repair crumbling paths or get ahead of the next rise.

But, for some beachgoers, a walk along a sandy shore is something.

On a recent afternoon, after the watchful seagull flew away, Holly Hume, of Crown Point, walked along West Beach, part of Indiana Dunes National Park, with a friendly Maltese-Yorkie mix.

“The water, the sounds of the waves, it is therapeutic,” Hume said. “It makes you connect with something that’s bigger than daily life.”

Gearing up for crowds

Along the Ogden Dunes shore, between a sand bucket and scattered rocks larger than beach balls, Briana Lambooy played with her sons on a sunny day. A bit west, a wooden walkway was still on its side.

“I think more people will come down now because there is more space,” Lambooy said. “This is what it’s all about. Summers in Ogden Dunes at the beach.”

The rocks placed along the beach last year don’t help the view, said Lambooy, who grew up in Ogden Dunes, but she’s happy to have a beach. Even the eastern stretch bordering the town started to come back last year, she said.

“And now you can almost walk all the way down,” Lambooy said. “Which you couldn’t do.”

Indiana Dunes, one of the country’s newest national parks, saw nearly 2.3 million visitors last year, a record-setting number, according to National Park Service data. The park is anticipating another wave. There’s a parking hotline up and running to counter congestion, and park staff is gearing up for summer crowds, said Superintendent Paul Labovitz.

“We call it the Illinois invasion,” Labovitz said.

Quieter weekdays are often a safer bet, but this summer, there’s more beach to meet the demand.

On a recent afternoon, two first-time visitors walked past the Portage pavilion and down below a sidewalk hanging at the edge of a crumbling dune to a spot along the beach that, not too long ago, was water. They placed their hands into Lake Michigan for the first time.

“With the lake levels going down, on a calm day there’s triple the amount of beach area it seems than there was last year,” Labovitz said. “Part of it is lake level and part of it is just nourishment. Even the Portage Lakefront, we were there today and there’s a ton of beach there compared to last year.”

At the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk, where a dune was breached and an accessible ramp was in water, boulders are being placed along the shore after 50,000 cubic yards of sand were brought in last year. The city is covering the majority of the costs of the boulders, with the park pitching in.

Without nourishment, erosion problems may have been even worse, Labovitz said. And it makes sense to add protections now, before the lake rises again.

“When it comes back up and this is a problem, it’s not going to be any cheaper,” he said.