Before we set off for today's park, no less than two separate people on two separate occasions offered us the same advice: BRING BUG SPRAY. And after the horror of Portsmouth Island, we never take those sorts of warnings lightly, so we came prepared for our visit to Tippecanoe River State Park. [Side note: Being the nerdy sort, we -- meaning MIKE -- researched bug spray effectiveness, and we ended up stocking up on the Ben's brand from REI last time we were in Indianapolis. It worked really well, and the smell isn't too bad, so hopefully we bought enough to get us through the summer!]
Today's mission seemed like a simple one ... but we all know how that works out. We got the latest issue of Outdoor Indiana (the magazine of the Indiana DNR), and it had a list of Indiana's prairies, and on that list was the Sandhill Nature Preserve at Tippecanoe River State Park: "This 120-acre nature preserve inside Tippecanoe River State Park offers flat sand plains and rolling dunes. Trail 8 explores the nature preserve." PERFECT, I thought. We are all big fans of prairies, particularly the gardeners among us (that would be Mike and Max, and sometimes even Henry). So off we went to the park, through the gate, and all the way back to the end of the line (or at least the end of the park) to the appropriate trail. Spoiler alert: We had as much luck finding the prairie as we did finding the beaver dam at the dunes.
Here's what I can tell you about trail 8: It was overgrown and very buggy indeed. The grass in the middle of the trail was higher than my ankles, which led us to think that the trail didn't get used very much. Or maybe all the trails were like that? We only tried the one, so it's possible. And the bugs! I sprayed copious amounts of bug spray on myself and the boys (Mike declined), and none of us got bitten, but they were SWARMING all over the place. Max and Henry kept complaining that bugs were flying into their eyes, and I totally believe them; I had sunglasses on, and Mike and Liam were wearing glasses, otherwise I'm sure we would have had that pleasant experience as well. Max got the first one shortly after I sprayed him down, and he immediately took his bug-sprayed hand and rubbed his eyes, and then started screaming in agony. So I took the water bottle and squirted it in his eyes to flush them out. It worked, but then he was mad at me because his shirt got wet in the process. The moral of the story: MOM CAN'T WIN.
Once we got a little deeper along the trail, there were some really nice wooded areas with pine needles all along the forest floor. It was very quiet and peaceful, like a forgotten place, only in a much better way than the overgrown areas at the beginning of the trail (if that makes sense). We found lots of things to look at and climb on, and the bugs even kind of let up at the end.
After we finished the hike, we decided to go check out the nature center and the river itself. It was really pretty, and the rangers were doing some kind of outdoor painting class. So we explored for a little while, got Charlie some (more) water, then decided to call it a day. Overall, I have to say that this wasn't my favorite park. It wasn't bad by any means, just nothing really standout. I'm thinking that might partly be just my personal dislike of bugs and heat and humidity. The park is fairly close, so I would definitely be willing to head back one day in the fall or even the winter.
See also: SPP1, SPP2, SPP3, SPP4, SPP5, SPP6, SPP7, SPP8, SPP9, SPP10, SPP11.
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