The dogs had been on my case for a couple of months now, spoiling for a nice walk in the woods. When Mommy's trip out of town stemmed that apparently endless stream of honey-dos for the weekend, it was calm enough that the furry kids and I could sneak off for a hike. So on a cool July Saturday morning, we hopped in the 'yota and motored just across the border to Turkey Run State Park in the Hoosier State. We forked over our five-buck non-resident fee (the nice lady at the gate told me I had to be a current resident, even if I could show her my Indiana birth certificate), collected the other two humans in our party, and hit the trails.

Well, actually, the other two were a little late, so we toured the grounds while we waited. It'd been more than twenty years since the last time I'd been in this park, but I was pleased to see that things hadn't changed much. That's (mostly) a good thing...


At a little under four square miles (2382 acres), "The Run" is a medium-sized member of the Indiana system. This particular park is easily divided into three separate recreational components: a conventional park, a nature preserve, and Sugar Creek, which divides the other two.

The grassy grounds of the conventional park comprise perhaps a third of the park's total area; lying between Sugar Creek on the north and Indiana Highway 47 on the south. All the traditional park venues are in this area, including such facilities as a campground, picnic grounds, a nature center, and park offices. You'll also find niceties like a saddle barn, tennis courts, and an Olympic swimming pool: swimming's prohibited in the creek, which is just as well. Most facilities on the south side of the creek are connected by paved roads plus a few trails, and you'll even find a small in at the campground to sell firewood and other camping "essentials." Many of the park buildings date back to the 1930s, having been built in the classic log-and-stone style of the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Key points of interest at Turkey Run include the Lieber cabin, the Lusk home, and the log church. Lieber Cabin was moved into the park in 1918 (two years after it opened) by Richard Lieber, who is credited with founding the Indiana State Park System. Lieber himself is buried within the park. A nineteenth-century log church is also preserved on the grounds; as is the restored home of Richard Lusk, one of the first European settlers in the area. The Lusk house dates to 1841, and can be toured "in season."

The park is bracketed on its ends by wooden covered bridges across Sugar Creek, both of which are still in use. The Narrows Bridge (upstream) was built in 1882 and the Cox Ford Bridge (downstream) was built in 1913 - curiously enough, it was built to replace a more "modern" steel bridge that washed out in a flood. These are two of the famous bridges of Parke County (not as famous as those in Madison County, but renowned in their own right).


On the north side of Sugar Creek lies the Rocky Hollow Falls Canyon Nature Preserve, which is reached from the south side by way of a suspension bridge barely wide enough for two to pass (the dogs were just fine with this, if anyone wonders). This swathe of second-growth hardwood forest covers about two-thirds of the park grounds, and is accessible only on foot. A network of trails snakes through the trunks of looming oak, maple, hickory, sycamore, and beech trees; wandering through a dissected landscape of stream-cut gullies and benches. The longest of the trails are between two and three miles, but could be combined for a longer day of hiking. Hiking trails are graded easy, moderate, rugged, and very rugged. We took the dogs on a moderate/rugged route, which included plenty of stairs carved out of the rock or built of six-by-six beams. Total relief in the park is only fifty feet or so, but many trails go up and down the sides of canyons several times. The one "very rugged" trail has a near-vertical stretch requiring hikers to climb a ladder (in other words, don't take the dog). Even though the grounds on the south side of the creek were crowded, we only ran into two parties of hikers once we got more than a few hundred feet from the bridge. Bicycling, by the way, is neither advisable nor permitted on the trails; bicycles are allowed only on paved roads.

Hikers can reach several erosional rock formations upon which local settlers bestowed fanciful names, including the Punchbowl, Camel's Back, Goose Rock, and Boulder Canyon. Campers may not, however, stay overnight in the nature preserve - camping is permitted only in the developed campground on the south side of the creek. Most trails run through the cool understory of the forest, which is quite pleasant even on hot days. Mosquitoes are abundant, however, and poison ivy is ubiquitous - be prepared, or you'll leave itchy!


The most popular recreational activity at Turkey Run during the hot summer months is floating Sugar Creek in a canoe, kayak, or inner tube. Several outfitters in nearby towns rent boats in season; part of the service includes busing your party to the put-in site; you then float downstream at your leisure. The creek includes a few "rapids," but nothing that even approaches a class I...

Fishing is also permitted on the creek, and some floaters we saw that day had brought their poles as well. A couple of well-established beaches provide for a break from the water where boaters can grab a picnic lunch. Swimming is prohibited in Sugar Creek, which is generally too shallow anyway - besides, you'd probably get run over by a canoe. On the hottest summer days - especially when Indiana, Purdue, and Depauw Universities and Wabash College are in session - the creek can look like an LA freeway.


Geologically, the park lies within an exposure of sandstones in the Pennsylvanian Mansfield Formation (named for the town of Mansfield about thirty miles away). Downcutting by Sugar Creek and its smaller tributaries has carved steep-walled canyons in the park area. Fine examples of crossbedding and channel scours can be viewed in the walls of the canyons, especially along Sugar Creek. Watch for herringbone crossbedding, indicative of bi-directional currents such as might be found in an estuary or tidal flat. Intermixed with the sandstones are mudstones and shales, as well as a coal seam that was mined by locals from the late nineteenth century into the early 1900s. These are remnants of the swamps and tidal lagoons that lay near the higher-energy environments preserved as sandstones.


Turkey Run is located some fifty miles west on Indianapolis at the intersection of Indiana 47 and US 41. From the east (Naptown), take I-74 to Indiana 32 and Crawfordsville where you'll pick up Indiana 47. Crawfordsville, by the way, is the home base of some of those canoe outfitters. From Crawfordsville, follow 47 west about twenty-five miles to the Park entrance. From the northwest, take the US 41 south (Veedersburg) exit off I-74 and follow the highway about fifteen miles to Indiana 47; turn left to reach the park. From the southwest, take the US 41 north (Terre Haute) exit on I-70 and follow the highway through its twists and turns to Indiana 47; turn right to reach the park entrance. For those interested, the park is about forty miles east of Paris and 170 miles north of Cairo (Illinois, that is). It's also about 100 miles north of Gobbler's Knob, Indiana - apparently they're unrelated.


The obligatory statistical information:

Entrance fees: as of this writing, $5 per vehicle (non-resident) and $4 for residents; there is a "per-head" fee for cyclists, buses, and walkers. Check the state's website for current fees.
Camping: The park's sole campground (west of the park entrance on Indiana 47) has over 200 sites wired for electricity plus a tent area for youth group camping; contact the park for a current fee structure. There are modern facilities (including showers) in the campground. Campground reservations can be made up to six months in advance through the state's Department of Natural Resources website, which can be found at http://www.camp.in.gov .
The Turkey Run Inn is also available for lodging. One of seven such facilities in the Indiana park system, the Inn has full dining facilities and 61 rooms in what it terms a "rustic setting." The Inn also manages a handful of very popular cabins on the grounds nearby.
Pets are welcome in the park, but dogs and - get this - cats must be leashed at all times. And none of those doofus retractable leashes, either - six-footers only (though this is obviously not enforced).


Our day at Turkey Run was great fun (the dogs were certainly happy), but I remember from previous visits that the conventional part of the park can be overrun at peak times. Hiking the trails near the campground and lodge is not unlike going through the turnstiles at a subway station, and the creek can get so crowded with canoes that it looks like Boston Harbor on the fourth of July. To avoid the crowds, try visiting on weekdays or even off-season (the trails are probably most crowded during fall color season). Above all, enjoy the great outdoors!





Recommended: Yes

Best time to go: September-November
Recommended for: Familes
Review Topic: Overview