state parks project, part 23: fort harrison

Friends, we've been criss-crossing this state all year long, and almost every trip has taken us around or through Indianapolis. And every single time, we've seen the sign for Fort Harrison State Park, and we've shrugged and said, "Eh, maybe on the next trip." We knew there was a big golf course there, and an inn that looks to be a little (or a lot) on the fancy side, neither of which really struck us as compelling reasons to prioritize a visit. How foolish we were!

As soon as we got out of the car, the boys found trees to climb, so they started off on the right foot. Then we headed down the Fall Creek Trail, a moderate trail just over a mile long that had lots of elevation changes, a bridge over a bubbling creek, and even a long boardwalk area with benches. It was challenging, but we totally fell in love with the terrain.

Maybe best of all were the birds! It's not exactly birding season, but still we managed to spot (and photograph!) a female hairy woodpecker, a male red-bellied woodpecker, and a great horned owl. The owl was particularly incredible. Liam spotted it in a tree far above and ahead of us, and luckily I had the right lens on my camera. I couldn't see it with the naked eye, but Mike found it and started taking pictures. It looked RIGHT AT US (creepy!) and then took off in a great expanse of wings.

We ended up going farther along the trail than we thought we would (all the way to the end), and we came back on a different trail, the Harrison Trace Trail, which was (happily for me) paved and only had a few steep places. It wound around Duck Pond, so we took some time to explore more little nooks and crannies of the park. We even got to watch a man fly a drone over the pond, and the boys let me take a picture of the three of them looking like they enjoy each other's company. Definitely a win!

We really enjoyed this park. Like I said, I can't believe we passed it over so many times when all that fun and beauty were waiting for us! But now that our eyes have been opened, I'm sure we'll be back. It's on the north side of Indy, so just a little less than two hours from our house. Who knows? We might even try the fancy inn one of these trips.

See also: SPP1, SPP2, SPP3, SPP4, SPP5, SPP6, SPP7, SPP8, SPP9, SPP10, SPP11, 
SPP12, SPP13, SPP14, SPP15, SPP16, SPP17, SPP18, SPP19, SPP20, SPP21, SPP22.