Shades State Park

Monday
Shades State Park lies between Turkey Run (where we were yesterday) and our B&B in Crawfordsville. Sugar Creek which I photographed yesterday flows through both. This is a good time of year to hike at Shades, as besides being beautiful in the Fall colors, many of the trails make use of ravine streambeds. It makes for interesting and challenging hiking among rocky cliffs, ferns, moss, and trees towering above. These trails include rocky footing, ladders in some cases, and significant ascents and descents.The trail we took, descended into the steep sided Sugar Creek Valley largely by long flights of wooden steps. As we were standing by the Sugar Creek this immature bald eagle came flying fairly low along the valley - an impressive sight with its huge wing span. The trail then ascended one of the ravines, past what remains of Maidenhair Falls, shown in the picture. We also hiked in Pine Hills Nature Preserve adjacent to Shades State Park - which was easier hiking but still interesting. Glacial meltwater formed two meandering streams, Clifty Creek and Indian Creek, which carved a deep gorge through the bedrock, leaving four narrow ridges or backbones that rise 70 to 100 feet. The pathway over Devil's Backbone is a mere 6 feet wide, with a sheer drop-off on both sides. Two other geological features in the preserve are the Slide, a smooth patch on the Clifty Creek walls, created by constant rock slides, and Honeycomb Rock, a wall of sandstone resembling a honeycomb, where the two creeks meet. After all this hiking we felt we had deserved our lunch, so we returned into Crawfordsville to a Mexican restaurant we had noticed and enjoyed a very late lunch, before returning home.

One year ago: Autumn gold