Dr. Lawless International Dark Sky Park — Attraction in Newberg Township

Dr. T. K. Lawless is a 820 acre nature park with over 7 miles of trails not including the mountain bike trail. Today I did trail 7 and trail 5 along with the lime lakes trail. This was definitely not meant to be a speed hike and I actually stopped every mile and a half to give Jaxson water and just take in the beauty of Gods creation at hand. Had a pileated woodpecker fly right in front of me to land in a tree down below me, saw turtles, a frog, a couple of swans at a distance and other water fowl as well as a ton of birds. Trail 7 is an interesting trail of n that it comes out of the woods and for well over a mile you skirt around wetland on one side and what appears to be an active farm field on the other. At times I wondered if I was still on the trail but we kept trudging along and eventually there be another sign marking the trail. On trails seven and five there are a lot of hills some of them very steep I would say that this is a moderate trail and not necessarily right for the beginner hiker. There is a 1 mile completely paved handicap accessibility trail here although I didn’t do it today. There is a three dollar for non-county resident fee to get into the park and one dollar see if you are a Cass County resident. There are bathrooms available, picnic sites, and lots of benches scattered along the way. This is kid friendly, dog on leash friendly and as used in the winter for cross country skiing it would appear. There’s some cool history About this park and it is a dark Sky park and Which I’ll let you Google to figure out. Definitely a very nice well grounded trail system that is Well marked and...

Been coming here for years and it's usually a very enjoyable experience. However, the last few times we have encountered the owner of the park and he is incredibly rude & always has something to say. In the past he found me on the trail in his little gator & followed behind me all the way back to the parking lot bc it was "close to sundown." (I had @ least 45 mins to an hour before sundown) I was incredibly irritated that I spent $30 on a sticker for my car to come somewhere that I was made to feel so uncomfortable.. This is supposed to be a dark sky park but don't go by Google because half the time it says they're open and he will come right down from his house to let you know that they are about to close. He seems to create a new rule every time I come here but will allow hunters to come and shoot deer and leave guts all over the park trails for people to see (but God forbid you're there close to sundown) He has told me once before that it was perfectly fine to be here after 6 if you knew the trails well.. I drive 40 minutes all the way from Goshen Indiana to come here for some peace and quiet and get ran off by someone with nothing better to do than make a really bad day, even worse for me.. As I said, I have been coming here for years, normally pay $90 to put a sticker on each of my cars but I will not be back for a while, seeing as it depends on the owners mood whether or not you'll have an...

I would like to say upfront that the park is a dark sky park but its only open late on certain dates, if you want to know which dates then you should check the facebook page, it should have all the dates for the year.

Review Overall

I had an amazing experience with my family seeing the Delta Aquarids meteor shower. We saw about 6 shooting stars over the course of two hours The staff there were very kind and there were a couple telescopes being overseen by some professionals so we got to see some planets and comets.

Tips

Bring chairs or a thick blanket the ground will get wet because of dew. I recommend wearing layers or bringing more blankets because it will get cold. Make sure to deposit $3 at the tollbooth at the front, when we went there was nobody in it and there will be a fine of $100 if you don't pay it. (You only have to pay $2 if you live in the county.) I highly recommend going here if a meteor shower is happening soon its well worth the drive...