On our way home from Indiana, we stopped at the Trail of Tears State Park.
The big plus of the campground at the park is that it was right next to the Missippi River!
The downside was the train track that ran right next to it.
And the train that runs 24/7, it honks it’s horn as it’s going past also…
In the MIDDLE of the night.
Ouch.
They did have nice bathrooms and a playground but they were not in the campground but a little ways away from it.
I believe there was a vault type toilet in the campground though.
The Missippi was incredable to see this close up.
It was like a living breathing thing.
So intense.
Another bonus of this park was the Museum at the visitors center.
I have become fascinated with learning all I can about early Native American culture and sharing it with the kids.
A deadly crossing happened near the park on the Missippi.
A trail goes behind the nature center and I was excited to go on it but it ended up being a really narrow trail with a lot of bugs and poison ivy.
This was the trail I was using to test out if we wanted to go on a longer hike while at the park and I decided not to.
It is hard to deal with narrow trails that have poison ivy with kids.
They are constantly brushing up against it!
We were pretty excited to be back at the start.
This park does have some pretty views of the Missippi though.
This overlook was amazing also.
I saw pictures like this when I was looking for places to stay and it convinced me to stop there.
So I was pretty determined to find this deck.
I would like to check out this park again when it is a bit colder so less bugs and maybe the trails are not as close.
I went to the office and tried to explain the trail I remembered to the ranger.
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
Narrow means you are brushing up against folliage.
Little bit has the hardest time on these kinds of trails because she gets hit in the face from all the plants.
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.
I like that I am one of those super organized camper/rvers.
I did like that zero hookups meant spending more time outside the rv.
This was a really pretty site.
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.
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.
Being able to go on these hikes early in the morning(well as early as I could manage to get my kids out of the rv) was amazing.
If we stay again we will choose a different camping spot though if we can.
It ended up being a perfect hike for a Sunday morning.
We made the mistake of leaving the dogs food out one night while we were there.
