A guide to catching fall colors at Indiana Dunes National Park: Where to eat, sleep and hike

PORTER, Ind. - When Indiana Dunes jumped categories from national lakeshore to national park earlier this year, it joined the elite ranks of the country's most hallowed natural wonders, 61 sites whose esteemed members include Yellowstone and Yosemite.

The Dunes' climb up the National Park Service ladder is really just a matter of perception. The new title doesn't mean more money or resources get pumped into this 15,000-acre swath of marshes, prairies, oak savannas, forests and its namesake sand dunes scattered along a 15-mile stretch of Lake Michigan's southern shore.

But the name change certainly raises the profile of the Dunes, an already popular summer playground that takes on a mellower beauty in the fall. Throngs