Tag Archives: Indiana

McCloud Nature Park ~North Salem, IN

While in Indiana, I wanted to be sure and check out some Nature Parks near my parents.

One of these is the McCloud Nature Park.

It is part of the Hendricks County Parks system.

trailsignsIt has 6 1/2 miles of trails and 232 acres!

shootingMy mom joined us for this hike.

trailmarkOne of these days I will get there when the Nature Center is open so we can check it out and get a map.

Yes, we got a little lost.

In my defence I took us the right direction and we could even see the vehicle!

A river just happened to be in between it and us…

riverBarely a stream really.

climbing

bridgeThere is a nice bridge for those of you that do not feel like swimming.

iceThe boys(including Nick) liked to test the thickness of the ice on the trail.

He broke through.

I went around.

maplesyupThey have maple syrup demonstrations on the weekends in February!

They were going on the weekend we were there but my sisters wedding was the same day.

If you live the area though, you should check it out!

pathwayI took the angled picture on accident but liked it.

I do my best work when I am not paying attention apparently.

familyI took advantage of my mom hiking with us to get a shot of all of us!

This is a beautiful park and I would love to visit in the spring!

They have so many beautiful trees!

Be sure to check it out!

Nick and I were able to check out the Sodalis Nature Park by ourselves the next day!

I will share that one tomorrow.

McCormick’s Creek State Park ~Spencer, IN

While visiting family in Indiana, my husband and I went to McCormick’s Creek to hike.

It is a great park and I am not sure why I do not go more often while in the area.

First we took trail 5.

I think the last time I was on this trail I was 16!

I remembered some stuff, like being scared stiff about going through the wolf cave.

Unfortunately it was closed this time.

I was so happy, I mean sad.

It is the Wolf Cave trail and is a pretty easy loop.

Around 2 miles total.

I think there was only one creek crossing on this trail.

Across from trail 5 is these steps…

What goes down must come up.

Those were my thoughts as I went down, down, down.

We wanted to get on trail 10 but took a little detour first.

That is what usually happens when I have the map.

I get turned around easily.

I think our hike was somewhere around 3 miles.

We took 2 to get to 10.

I call it the scenic route.

When we finally got on trail 10 there were a lot of water crossings.

It seemed like that was all we did.

I did not mind though.

I would have minded if I had fallen.

Thankfully I did not.

It was a miracle really.

You do not have to cross this.

He was just showing off.

Then came the moment I was dreading.

We had already gone down these, up, and down another set of stairs at this point.

My legs were begging me to find another way.

I tried to jog up but that only lasted 6 steps.

I kept saying over and over, “I want to be a contender!”.

I have never seen Rocky, so it always confuses me when I try to make a reference to the movie.

I am sure Nick found it adorable though.

Sure.

Any Hoosier’s out there?

Go to this park and run up the stairs humming the rocky theme song for me!