A Cave in Indiana!?

Timmy and I got very adventurous this weekend and decided to go for...a hike...? In Indiana? Where you might ask...would one go 'hiking' in the flattest of all states? Well to a cave of course! Hehehe, off we go - to the bat cave.

We packed a lunch and took a drive out West to a small town called McCormick's Creek. There we paid the silly bloated 'Out of State License Plate' fee to get into the state park, $7 instead of the 'Local' $4 charge. Uhhmmm...who do I have to tell that I'm paying Indiana state income taxes this year and I don't want to pay this stuff?

We ventured our way through the state park which included amenities like hotels, camp sites, swimming pools, playgrounds and the like. We both decided it had a very 50's feel, kind of reminded us of the state parks upstate NY and in PA. Or, in Tim's words - "feels like that park Yogi Bear lives in".

The first stop in the magical mystery tour of McCormick's Creek state park was 'The Falls". This is no Multnomah Falls here folks, in fact I think that Mom and Dad have a larger waterfall in the creek next to their house. This is due to the fact they've been having a drought all year, so I guess I will stop being so judgmental.

You can venture down the nicely manicured steps to the creek and cross over, getting right under the falls if you walk there. That was pretty cool and the falls are coming right over the top of Indiana limestone.

After the adventure to the falls we drove down to the starting point for the hike out to the cave. This was just a short little one mile walk on a well groomed and manicured path. The only little hills we encountered were those caused by erosion of the limestone below our feet. Thus causing pits and holes in the ground, feeling a bit like tiny, rolling hills.

After one pee in the woods :) and a half an hour later we reached the cave. It was actually kind of cool. You had to crouch down to walk inside it and only then we realized we should've brought flashlights. It wasn't too bad at the front where light could still get in from the outside, but looking further back it was pitch black.

We sat around in there for awhile and played with the weird lighting and the new camera. After awhile, both freezing from the chill of the cave we stepped outside and had a picnic under the trees. It was a nice day to get out and be in nature. I really needed to get out and away from Bloomington, cause I was starting to go city stir crazy. It's comforting knowing that this much relaxation could be found just 19.6 miles from my home. :)

Driving around the park some more later we found little cabins in the woods that you can rent. They appear to have fireplaces and screened front porches with rocking chairs. Looks like a nice place to retreat to on a weekend night.

After exhausting all entertaining options in McCormick's Creek SP we decided to head back to Bloomington, catching some nice pictures of the sunset on the return. It was a good day...Ahhh, feels good to relax and feel a bit more like myself again.