Turkey Run State Park, Indiana

This is one of the ten heavily wooded trails at Turkey Run State Park in Park County, Indiana, near the Illinois state line. We were here last year and the trails are so awesome that we didn't hesitate to come back again this year.

The trails are rated from easy to strenuous, so -- of course -- we decided to take the most strenuous one this time. You'll definitely need your hiking sticks, waterproof hiking boots, and leave your fear of heights at home! (That's a tall order for me, says Jeanie.)

You start most of the trails by crossing a high hanging bridge over the Wabash River. For this trail you follow Sugar Creek through a narrow canyon where the trees grow high up on the ridge, sometimes sending their roots right down into the rocks. If there aren't any other hikers around, you really feel like you are explorers in an undiscovered forest. Keep to the creek and watch your foothold as you climb right up the middle of the creek and along narrow ledges of rocks.

Soon you are high above the creekbed walking narrow trails like the one pictured here. Everything was very green this year, even though there hadn't been much rain. You can see little "caves" in the rocky cliff walls along the trail. They are big enough for birds to nest in, but not for bears, thank goodness. (Spoken by one who has had a bear encounter on a trail before!).

This is about a five-mile trail that takes you from low to high country and back to low country again. Along the way we had to climb down two tall wooden ladders to reach the lower parts of the trail. Thank goodness they were sturdy, or I'm sure we would have taken a U-turn at the first one!

After we finished our three-hour hike, we had lunch at the dining room of the rustic inn located right in the state park. Between our two visits to Turkey Run, we've done all but two of the ten trails (one has an old wooden covered bridge), and can highly recommend them if you are in that area of Indiana. If you are a member of Thousand Trails, Horseshoe Lakes is in nearby Clinton and is a pretty nice campground.

For more of EB's pictures of Turkey Run, go to http://ebinfl.smugmug.com/gallery/936734.