state parks project, part 1: prophetstown

We couldn't let January end without at least starting on our new year's resolution, right? So we spent the weekend exploring a few western Indiana state parks. First we went to Prophetstown State Park in Battle Ground (near Lafayette, for people who aren't instantly familiar with the approximately 40 billion small towns in our state). Prophetstown features an outdoor water park, which I expected to be closed, and a Native American village and living history farm, which I did not expect to be closed. Oh well. So instead of taking in those wonders, we hit the trails. Turns out that a big part of the park is prairie, so it looked sort of desolate, but also pretty neat.

We ended up splitting up for a while, and I took Max and Henry past the prairie to a wooded area overlooking a frozen river, while Mike and Liam went back for the car to meet us at a later point on the trail (we didn't realize we could bypass the prairie altogether and just go in the woods). Henry found a piece of wood that made a perfect "sword," and there was much running through the woods and hollering. Max was really into the sort of sad winter look of the whole place, and the icy river made a nice contrast to the 50-degree day.

Eventually, we wound our way through the woods and met back up with Mike and Liam, checked out the observation deck, and then made our way to a fishing pond where a pair of swans were gliding around between ice floes. We were there for a good couple of hours, and nobody threw a fit, which was pretty amazing by itself. We also saw a flyer for a native plant sale the park will be having in May, so we're planning to come back then and maybe see it in a little more glory. And, you know, visit all the parts that were closed.