Technically the June 24, 2011 article "51 Great Hikes" asked local experts to name one great place to hike in each state, and Hiking Indiana author Salley McKinney offered the following: “East of the Nature Center, choose the wide, sandy path to Indiana Dunes Nature Preserve. Enter black oak and maple forest and find dramatic dune country blowouts amid shifting sand hills. Green grasses and sedge poke up between matted, dry leaves; moss forms a natural carpet. From the crest of high dunes, look out over vast Lake Michigan.” Although McKinney didn't mention Trail 9 specifically, it is trail 9 that leads through the nature preserve and across the crest of the dunes.