Hiking: Prophetstown State Park
On the Friday after Thanksgiving, to participate in REI's #OptOutside campaign (in short, REI remained closed on Black Friday and gave all of its employees a paid day off, and invited everyone else to do some outdoor activity instead of shopping), and because Indiana was one of the states waiving gate admission in all its state parks for the day, I decided to take what I thought would be a quick hike at Prophetstown State Park. I chose Prophetstown because I didn't want to drive very far and other than Brown County, Fort Harrison, and maybe McCormick's Creek, it is the closest state park to Indy. Since I've been to the other three a ton of times and Prophetstown only once, I went there.
Last time I went there was the middle of summer, and I couldn't complete the trails because there was significant flooding in the park (that post also contains a side trip to Fall Creek Gorge, which I did not visit this time).
Prophetstown is mostly prairie and wetlands, with a little bit of hilly forested area along its northern border. It was pretty when I went in summer, and I'm sure its beautiful in the spring, but in late November? It's just sort of brown.
Didn't help that it was such a dreary day. At least it didn't rain while I was there. It was pretty cold, though.
There were a few other people out and about, I think maybe even more than I saw on my summer trip. The place wasn't exactly hopping, but I probably saw a couple dozen other people on the trails?
Fungus.
There is something a bit haunting about a brown, windswept prairie.
The fishing pond, covered with algae last time I went. Clearer now, but still no one fishing.
Compare and contrast:
I'm reposting this photo to show why I couldn't continue my hike last time: Trail 4, which is what the sign post in the middle of the water is marking, was literally at the bottom of the Wabash River.
And this is how it's supposed to look, when there's no flooding. So I was able to do Trail 4!
The Wabash River, in its proper place.
This is a vole? I think?
As I think I mentioned in the post about my last visit, Prophetstown is the state's newest park, and even in the year and a half between my last visit and now a lot of things have been added/improved. All the roads have new signs (though confusingly half of them are still just blank wooden signposts with nothing on them yet); the connector between Trails 3 and 4, which was just a mowed area in the grass that didn't look like it went anywhere last time, is now a well-marked gravel path; there are some new observations platforms; and there is this: a long boardwalk that extends from the paved bike trail out over the prairie. I meant to go on it, but by the time I got over there it was starting to get dark and I decided to head to my car instead.
Restored marshland and a dead forest.
This is also new: a circle of stones commemorating the Native American tribes that used to live in the area.
And that is it! All pictures were taken with my new GoPro. It worked well, though the battery life isn't great. It was nearly dead by the end of the hike (which did not end up being as short as I planned, mostly due to Trail 4 being a lot longer than I thought. I actually hiked about 9.5 miles!), so I'll have to remember to bring the charger on my next trip.
Last time I went there was the middle of summer, and I couldn't complete the trails because there was significant flooding in the park (that post also contains a side trip to Fall Creek Gorge, which I did not visit this time).
Prophetstown is mostly prairie and wetlands, with a little bit of hilly forested area along its northern border. It was pretty when I went in summer, and I'm sure its beautiful in the spring, but in late November? It's just sort of brown.
Didn't help that it was such a dreary day. At least it didn't rain while I was there. It was pretty cold, though.
There were a few other people out and about, I think maybe even more than I saw on my summer trip. The place wasn't exactly hopping, but I probably saw a couple dozen other people on the trails?
Fungus.
There is something a bit haunting about a brown, windswept prairie.
The fishing pond, covered with algae last time I went. Clearer now, but still no one fishing.
Compare and contrast:
I'm reposting this photo to show why I couldn't continue my hike last time: Trail 4, which is what the sign post in the middle of the water is marking, was literally at the bottom of the Wabash River.
And this is how it's supposed to look, when there's no flooding. So I was able to do Trail 4!
The Wabash River, in its proper place.
This is a vole? I think?
As I think I mentioned in the post about my last visit, Prophetstown is the state's newest park, and even in the year and a half between my last visit and now a lot of things have been added/improved. All the roads have new signs (though confusingly half of them are still just blank wooden signposts with nothing on them yet); the connector between Trails 3 and 4, which was just a mowed area in the grass that didn't look like it went anywhere last time, is now a well-marked gravel path; there are some new observations platforms; and there is this: a long boardwalk that extends from the paved bike trail out over the prairie. I meant to go on it, but by the time I got over there it was starting to get dark and I decided to head to my car instead.
Restored marshland and a dead forest.
This is also new: a circle of stones commemorating the Native American tribes that used to live in the area.
And that is it! All pictures were taken with my new GoPro. It worked well, though the battery life isn't great. It was nearly dead by the end of the hike (which did not end up being as short as I planned, mostly due to Trail 4 being a lot longer than I thought. I actually hiked about 9.5 miles!), so I'll have to remember to bring the charger on my next trip.