state parks project, part 7: mccormick's creek

We got to the Canyon Inn at McCormick's Creek State Park late last night. This morning, we had breakfast on the porch of the inn's restaurant, which was pretty great. There are tons of windows facing a wooded area, and bird feeders hung all around -- Henry was so excited about taking pictures of all the birds that we could barely get him to eat! (Although he did eat JUST enough to ensure that my phone -- which he was using as his camera -- was totally coated in syrup.) We saw some really interesting birds, including some kind of grosbeak, goldfinches, and bluebirds, but I'll leave it to our birding experts to post about that part.

After breakfast, we went out to explore the waterfall. We had planned to see it last night, but much to the boys' dismay, it was just too dark by the time we checked in. But it turned out to be worth the wait, and we spent a long time happily exploring, with the kids jumping from rock to rock. Liam ended up with wet feet, but I anticipated that something like that would happen and had brought extra shoes for everyone.

We had seen that there was a guided hike to explore Wolf Cave at 10, and we showed up at the designated area, only to find that we were the only ones. We didn't mind at all because that meant we had a park ranger, Will, all to ourselves for a couple of hours. He was very informative and patient with the boys' antics, and we learned all about the trees and plants as we hiked to the cave entrance. And then we got to the cave itself, which had a VERY low ceiling. We sat inside on some rocks while Will talked to us about that specific type of cave (limestone), how it formed (water), why we can go in it (it's not out of the elements enough for bats to live there, so it's safe for people to explore without hurting the bat population), and so on. The whole time, the boys were just dying to go further into the cave. There is a narrow, twisty tunnel that leads to a rear opening, but Will told us that with all the recent rains, parts of it would be very, very wet, meaning we would basically have to wade through. He didn't seem into that, and Mike and I didn't really relish washing the mud out later, so we compromised: Mike waited outside (he is not a fan of small spaces), and I went with Will and the boys through the tunnel until we got to the point where it was too wet (and frankly, too narrow) to continue. Of course, we had to do the trick where you turn off the flashlights and experience true darkness, and just like every other time we've been in a cave and done that, it freaked the boys out a little bit. Still, it was a great experience, and one I'm sure they won't soon forget.

After our hike, we explored the nature center for a bit (birds! lots of birds! and microphones so that we could hear them in the little viewing area but not disturb them with our human sounds), and hiked around a stone bridge built by the CCC (I LOVE CCC projects!). The bridge is just gorgeous, right? I want one for my yard. And a yard big enough to put it in. And a creek, too, while we're at it.

After a brief foray into the nearest town for lunch and supplies, we came back to the inn, ate, and figured out our next move. The quarry, we decided, and off we went for another hike. The quarry in question is an old (defunct) limestone quarry, famous mostly for being the place that supplied the limestone used in the Indiana Statehouse. The trail was a lot hillier than the cave trail, and we were all sort of getting tired by that point, but we were rewarded when we finally got there. The boys immediately scampered off to climb giant slabs of limestone, and we messed around taking pictures for a while too.

After all that hiking, we were tired and hungry -- a good thing since we had already planned to meet my cousin Vickie and her husband, Mike, in Bloomington for dinner at Mother Bear's, a pretty famous pizzeria. The food was delicious, and the boys really enjoyed reading all the graffiti on the booths, as well as telling Vickie and Mike all about our adventures.

We're here again tonight, then tomorrow morning we're going to head out early and make a few stops on the way home. Overall, I would say this park ranks very high on our list, and we would have loved to have been able to spend more time exploring (though we did pack a lot into today). If you ask me, it's definitely on the list of parks we'll visit again.

See also: SPP1, SPP2, SPP3, SPP4, SPP5, SPP6.