Clifty Falls

We arrived at the Clifty Falls State Park in Madison, Indiana about 12:30 AM on Saturday, for the three-day weekend. It was a dark drive, and one of the first real long drives of sorts in the new car. We got everything unloaded from the car into the hotel and were asleep rather quickly. It was really dark, we were tired, and all I knew what there was a giant pillar of smoke behind the hotel. (I looked it up, it was probably steam, the building being the powerplant for the area.)

A downside of getting there so late was that we didn't make it out for snacks on the way there. That is actually one of our big things for traveling, we get snacks and such once we know if there is a minifridge or not. We haven't gotten brave enough to try using Amazon grocery delivery yet, but hey. Our last two trips to Carmel had us a few blocks from Meijer. It was an easy drive there with the food, and across from a few restaurants. Both of our trips to New Orleans had us shopping at Rouses near the hotels. Ironically, Meijer in Carmel was closer than Rouses, but we didn't use a car in NOLA. Carrying a half case of water half of a mile to a hotel was not the best of plans...

We managed to eat at the buffet the first morning there, which I wasn't very happy with. The meat was cold, but I ate a lot. Enough that I hardly had room for dinner, for what that was worth. We did hit Walmart though, which would get us snacks and breakfast for the rest of the week. We got some exploring done, but not as much as we would like. A short hike on Saturday got us some great views of the town and the powerplant. I forgot my hiking sticks, which would have been great for the terrain.

To be fair, most trails that are near me are a lot flatter than Clifty Falls has. It had some great flat areas, but there were a lot more steep areas than I expected. I had planned a second hike originally, but I ended up skipping that when the snow started. I'm not sure if I had the right gear for that, and I wanted to use my camera. I don't know if that was the best decision, but I made it. 

On our last day there, while it wasn't showing, I struggled to decide between hiking and trying to trail run. I know there was a flat trail (according to the park) near the hotel, but I had some doubts, and with being trails and some fresh snow, I instead hiked back to the south entrance which was a long walk down a rather steep hill. Actually, the hike down wasn't bad. The walk back up the hill was the hard part. 

I don't know if I would want to stay at the inn again, at least not in winter. I didn't actually get around to seeing the waterfall the park is named for, but I also missed out on the railroad tunnel, which is closed until later in spring due to hibernating bats. I might need to make another trip out this way again, but I still have a lot of Ohio parks to catch up on.