Visitation · National Park

Indiana Dunes National Park visitation by month and year

July is the busiest month at Indiana Dunes, when the average temperature nearby is 73 degrees. January is the quietest, and the average temperature then is 25 degrees. July runs about 6.7 times the visits of January. The crowd arrives with the warm weather and leaves with it. Annual visits rose 23.2 percent from 2,134,285 in 2019 to 2,629,497 in 2025.

Back to the Indiana Dunes page · Plot Indiana Dunes against other parks on Publicopia Labs

Visits by month, with temperature and precipitation

Bars are the average recreation visits in each month over 2021 to 2025. The line is the average temperature at Indiana Dunes NL, 1 mile from the park's reference point at 680 feet, station USC00124244 in the NOAA 1991 to 2020 climate normals. The lower panel is monthly rain and snow from the same station, also 1991 to 2020 averages.

Annual visits, 1979 to 2025

Recreation visits per calendar year. A year with a missing month is left blank rather than estimated.

The last ten years

Year	Recreation visits	Change on prior year
2025	2,629,497	-2.8%
2024	2,705,209	-2.2%
2023	2,765,892	-2.4%
2022	2,834,180	-10.8%
2021	3,177,210	+38.6%
2020	2,293,106	+7.4%
2019	2,134,285	+21.5%
2018	1,756,079	-18.6%
2017	2,158,471	+27.1%
2016	1,698,223	+3.5%

Visitation at other parks

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial George Rogers Clark National Historical Park Great Smoky Mountains National Park Zion National Park

Compare Indiana Dunes with Gateway Arch National Park

Compare Indiana Dunes with Mammoth Cave National Park

Source: NPS Visitor Use Statistics, monthly recreation visits, as compiled for Publicopia Labs. A year is shown only when all twelve months were reported. Temperature, precipitation and snowfall normals are the 1991 to 2020 monthly averages published by NOAA NCEI for station USC00124244, 680 feet above sea level. Data refreshed October 14, 2026.