Circus Forticus: state parks project, part 24: spring mill

Although later events completely overshadowed it, we spent the weekend visiting the last two state parks on our list. We stayed Friday night and Saturday night at the Spring Mill Inn at Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell. We actually meant to visit Spring Mill a lot earlier in the year. I made a reservation to spend Memorial Day weekend there, but then I realized that we had other plans, so we rescheduled for early September, but then we realized that was too close to yet more plans, so we rescheduled again for this past weekend. What can I say? We're a family on the go.

It was pretty late by the time we arrived on Friday, so we didn't do much more than get settled into our room, watch a movie, and sleep. But we woke up Saturday morning ready to hike. The day was chilly and overcast, but that didn't bother us. We chose a rugged trail that started with a scary-steep descent right from the inn down a wooded and rocky hillside, then we followed the trail until we got to Donaldson Cave (which is open year-round; we were hoping to take a boat tour through the underground river in Twin Caves, but alas, that was closed for the season). The cave had a beautiful rocky opening, but inside, it turned out that if you wanted to explore, you had to climb about six feet up a rock wall (with rocks helpfully stacked against it to make a very precarious staircase). The boys clambered right up, and I seriously considered it. I'm pretty sure I could have made it up there relatively easy, but the prospect of getting back down seemed a little too daunting, so I gave them a flashlight and wished them well on their exploration. (You may remember that Mike isn't a fan of caves, so he scouted out the surrounding area during this time.)

The boys got extremely dirty exploring the cave (the true mark of a good time), and they shouted excitedly when they found another entrance. Liam had my phone, so he took some pictures, but only one really turned out. Still, they were very proud of themselves for their extremely successful spelunking.

The trail we were on reminded me a lot of Gatlinburg. It was very hilly, and there was a crisp, clear stream with huge rocks all around it, and it was very peaceful. It's kind of funny that I told Mike and the boys about it, because it turns out that Brown County State Park, which is about 90 minutes away, is actually nicknamed the "Little Smokies" because of that resemblance. Guess I was getting ahead of myself.

Eventually, some of us got tired, so we split up. Max, Henry and I hiked back to the inn to shower and rest, and Liam and Mike kept on hiking, going up and down lots of hills and through a nature preserve of virgin timber. Mike reported that the trees were huge and impressive.

Oh, and just to make our day, we saw a bunch of pileated woodpeckers. You can tell this one is male because he has a red stripe on his cheek.

It turns out that all the schedule shuffling we did worked to our advantage, because we unwittingly ended up coming on the weekend of Holiday in the Village. Spring Mill features a limestone gristmill that's in the center of Pioneer Village, a little town full of restored buildings from the early 1800s. Costumed interpreters "live" in 1863 and do crafts and period-appropriate activities during the summer, and for the holidays, they do traditional decorations and activities too. So after a quick trip into town for some lunch, we set off to tour the village. We stopped in at the tavern and met Father Christmas, who gave the boys coloring books. It was actually pretty funny, because Liam walked up to him, offered his hand for a very manly shake, and said, "Hi, Father Christmas, how's it going?" I wasn't going to make them take pictures (I've never made them do Santa pictures), but FC himself asked about it, and Liam was a good sport. And of course, once Liam did it, Henry had to do it too, leaving Max the lone holdout.

Elsewhere in the village, we checked out dormant gardens, watched a pioneer family having a holiday meal, and made potpourri ornaments. We tried walking on stilts, we marveled at the decorations on the trees (popcorn strings, cranberries, actual sugar cookies), and we ate rock candy and cookies. There was supposed to be wassail, a traditional drink, but if it was there, we didn't find it. Even so, we had a really lovely time. Spring Mill was well worth the wait!