A record setting 2,165,605 visits were made to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in 2010, the National Park Service reported today.

That figure represents an 11.8-percent increase over 2009 and the most visits ever recorded in a single year to the region’s only national park.

“Surveys show that approximately 80 percent of the park’s visitors are not from the local area,” Superintendent Constantine Dillon said. “That means some 1.6 million of these visits are from people outside Northwest Indiana contributing to the local economy through tourism spending.”

Nearly half a million visitors came to the park in July, the park’s busiest month, and June and August saw over 300,000 in each month. The Dunewood Campground had 23,439 people stay at least one night either in a tent or a camper. Meanwhile, the 2010 survey of park-visitor satisfaction revealed that 91 percent rated the park’s recreation opportunities as good or very good.

The most visited area of the park was the Lake Michigan shoreline. Visits to individual sites included 172, 840 at Mount Baldy, 118,743 to the Bailly/Chellberg area, 176,920 to West Beach, and 140,304 at Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk.

Posted 1/13/2011