Yellowwood State Forest ~Nashville, IN

It all started with a look into my wedding album.

I saw that we hiked at Yellowwood State Forest on our honeymoon and decided I really wanted to hike it again.

I went to the office and tried to explain the trail I remembered to the ranger.

Apparently I don’t remember much from 14yrs ago…
She finally did make sense of my crazy memories and recommend a trail that she thought the kids would like as well. The Jackson Creek Trail
At first it seemed great but then the it started getting really narrow. Narrow means you are brushing up against folliage.

The whole time.

Which is a bad idea when chiggers and ticks are around. Little bit has the hardest time on these kinds of trails because she gets hit in the face from all the plants.

Finally Nick just gave her a ride.

I was pretty sure this was one of our fail hikes of the trip.

We were going to try to find a place to boondock in Hoosier National Forest but I panicked about not being able to find a place and we stayed here.

No hookups but it was only $13 a night!

One of these days I will actually go through with boondocking!

I like that I am one of those super organized camper/rvers.

Also movie on the tablet.

And I am so thankful my husband bought this Dewalt battery powered fan.

Because it was pretty hot.

This little fan was cute but did not do near as much to cool us off. I did like that zero hookups meant spending more time outside the rv.

It is so easy to just stay inside in the evenings, when it is hot and there are lots of bugs outside.

But no air means it is actually cooler outside…

This was a really pretty site.

It was also quiet which was nice since all of our windows were open all night.

I definitely felt a lot closer to camping with no hookups.

Well, camping lite.

Or camping jr.


We only stayed one night so we packed it all back up and headed farther south to Hemlock Cliffs and Hoosier National Forest the next morning. The other problem with a close trail.

Poison Ivy.

Have you ever tried to keep five kids from brushing up against poison ivy when it is all over the trail? Still, it is a beautiful forest.

We got home and I realized that we did hike on the same trail 14yr ago on our honeymoon!

I thought for sure it was not it while we were hiking but it was!

I really like to relive memories like that so I am glad we took the detour even if it seemed like a bad idea in the middle of the poison ivy!

We also (by we I mean me) forgot to secure the spray I use on the girls hair so the ENTIRE bottle (filled with conditioner and oil) spilled all over the floor of the rv.

Oops.

That is okay, everyone likes their RV to be a skating rink.

Right?

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?