Category Archives: Parks

Spring Mill State Park ~Mitchell, IN

Apparently I have been to Spring Hill State Park when I was younger. I did not remember it though and was not sure what to expect. This beautiful pioneer village was a pleasant surprise! Several of the buildings had heritage interpreters to show you what life would have been like in the 1800’s. She was wonderful with all of my kids crazy questions. We got to show the girls how a mill works.

Hopefully this lesson sticks with them more than if we had just read about it in a book.

Grinding the corn was Little Bit’s favorite. The have a museum on the upper floors of the mill! Checking out the wheel from up above. There was so much to explore!

What a great stop!

Be sure to check this place out if you live in central Indiana!

 

 

I included a quick look into our visit there in this video.

McCormick’s Creek State Park ~Spencer, IN

When we left Turkey Run, we started heading south.

I wanted to stop by McCormick’s Creek State Park since it was on my list and it is the oldest Indiana State Park.

The wolf cave hike seemed like an easy hike and like a crowd pleaser. Unfortunitly we got there around nap time and my 4yr old had some difficulty on this one. Next we checked out the waterfall trail.I realized on the hike down that my husband and I did this same hike over 14yrs ago when we were dating! The kids really liked this hike! We have walkie talkies because we often find cell service unreliable on our hikes.

I will take one when I go for a hike alone, that way I can contact Nick if I need to.

We only stayed for a little bit since we had one more stop to make for the day!

We were actually headed to the park Nick and I hiked at on our honeymoon!

Shades State Park ~Waveland, IN

Shades State Park is right next to Turkey Run State Park.

And after finding this list of 10 best hikes for the state I wanted to make sure we checked it out!

It was a really pretty place to hike and we only saw a few people while there.

It was one of our hikes that I would consider more of a fail though.

The gnats were crazy!!!!

And the hike that was recommended was closed.

There were a lot of steps.

I thought if we walked along Sugar Creek a bit in the open the gnats would not be as bad.

I was wrong.

I was ready to through a blanket over my face and call it good.

My boys liked the trail we took back up though.

You pretty much are hiking up a stream.

Which made for a difficult but beautiful hike.

Little bit did great!

I was trying to smile…

Ha!

But if I opened my mouth at all the gnats would get it in.

I did find the Devil’s Punchbowl to be really pretty!

You can actually park really close to it but we did not know that so we stumbled upon it after already doing a lot of steps.

I took the three with me that wanted to check it out and Nick stayed with the other two.

It was nice and cool down there which was nice.

Now to go back up all those steps 😉

I would like to go back to this park when the gnats are not as bad.

I think it would be amazing in the fall.

Has anyone been to this park?

When is the best time to go in your opinion?