Owen County Tour: McCormick's Creek State Park

First of all...remember how our next podcast episode is #200? Well...it's going to be coming your way next week instead of this week. Ryan and I were on the go every single moment of the weekend, which is when we normally record them, and we didn't want to slop through a 200th episode! So we decided to wait a week and do it correctly. 

In the meantime, here's a look at some of what kept us so busy on Saturday! I told you yesterday how we crossed Owen County off our tour list, and we started our day with delicious coffee in an adorable little coffee shop. 

After we left there, we headed over to McCormick's Creek State Park, where we spent the rest of the day! Ryan had never been to this park before, and my only previous visit was probably 35 years ago when I was pretty small. I have a vague recollection of going with my parents to the park to meet up with my grandparents, who had gone to stay in the Inn there. I don't remember a single thing we did. I just remember going. 

A fun fact about the park is that it holds the distinction of being the very first state park IN Indiana. It opened in 1916 when the state was 100 years old. 

During our time at the park, we hiked all but three of the trails (and the three we ran out of time to do were some of the shortest and easiest ones, so we did all the hard stuff)! We logged over ten miles of hiking, including our hikes from one trail to the next, since some weren't right next to each other. I think the only thing that could have made this day better would have been better shoes for me. We learned LAST October, when hiking another park, that I really need proper, waterproof hiking boots. Apparently the yearlong break in between the parks wasn't enough time to remember to actually get them. (hee hee hee.) This park has the most creek/water hiking I've done, and we were extremely fortunate that it's been so dry around here lately, because otherwise I would have come home with very soaked feet.

We took a ton of pictures, and I'll do my best not to completely bore you with the recap, but I'll show you some fun stuff we did!

First up: the official county tour photo:

(Little change in wardrobe from the tank tops and shorts of our last county tour!)

We found a cave, and we chose not to explore this one. You may remember that a year ago in May, when we hiked at Clifty Falls State Park, we did traverse through a cave, and it summoned every ounce of my mental strength to do so. That cave, however, was big enough to walk through while standing up (bending slightly in some place). This one was WAY too small. No way was I crawling through and getting soaked at the start of the hike or getting assaulted by bats. Nope. I told Ryan if he wanted to do it, he definitely should and I would just wait for him, but he declined too. So...photo opps for the win!

It was so cold during the first couple hours of our hike that we couldn't feel our fingers or noses, but it was also a fairly empty park during that time, and we had the BEST conversations while we walked around and explored. 

 Trial run on creek bed walking. This was a mostly dry bed. They got trickier. And a bit more slippery.

 The pro.

It's my "Where's Waldo" picture...where's Ryan? 

 So pretty down by the water...

 These stairs were my NEMESIS. I climbed steep hills all day long and did fairly well. These stairs about killed me. And I think I did three of these. They just went on and on for days. I would have counted the steps, but I had to breathe and there wasn't enough energy to do both.

We found this beautiful amphitheater and discovered it was set up for a wedding! We actually met the bride while we were there and talked with her for a while. She had stopped by to check things over one more time before she went to get ready, and she was so nice!

 Ryan's pretty sweet panoramic. Can you find me?

 That would be a stunning aisle to walk to get married, right?

A few more scenes from our hike:

 These tree trunks are pretty huge for this area.

Got lost for a little minute:

 This was STRAIGHT up and down.

Finally found the trail.

See this?

We climbed it - all the way to the top, or at least until the padlock. (The actual tippy top platform that looks OVER the treetops is locked, but we went up to the highest platform.) I had to pray SO MUCH all the way up and down, but I was crazy proud of myself for doing it.

I have a few more I want to show you, but I fear this has been a long post already, so I'll give you a break for today and come back with more tomorrow. Spoiler alert: there's a waterfall!