Winter Hiking @ Turkey Run State Park

I had always wanted to try hiking during winter and yesterday's weather was rather nice to do some hiking, so we decided to go for some winter hiking in Turkey Run State Park yesterday with a friend. After driving about an hour, we finally reached Turkey Run State Park Nature Center at around 10am.

We first went to the Nature Center where we were joined the event "Help Feed The Birds" which allowed us to stock the wildlife observation area with seeds, and then watch through large windows as birds and squirrels eat and interact. It was fun to see that all the birds and squirrels appearing once we started placing all the seeds.

At about 10.30am, we joined another event called "Love Is In The Air" which was a 1-hour hike in search of the sights and sounds of bird courtship, mating and nest building. Well, no birds were in sight but we did enjoy the naturalist giving us lots of facts about birds and trees.

After the 1 hour hike, we decided to embark on an adventure of our own, that is, to hike some of the trails on our own. We started our hike by walking across the suspension bridge. The stairs up to the bridge were covered in ice and were very slippery. Little did we know that that was just the beginning. From the bridge, we have an excellent view of the river - Sugar Creek. Most of the surface of Sugar Creek was frozen and we were wondering if we could just walk on the surface.

 

After crossing the suspension bridge, we decided to take Trail 3, which will allow us to walk through the Rocky Hollow Nature Preserve, a series of canyons cut into the sandstone. We have to walked on the frozen surface of a stream to get through the canyons and there were sections we have to climb. I really wished I brought a pickaxe along as these sections are so slippery to climb and a pickaxe would definitely come in handy.

 

While walking on the frozen surface, we tried to break the layers of ice. They have very interesting crystal-like structure because of the way they are frozen. Here is a piece of the ice.

The walk through the Rocky Hollow Nature Preserve was worthwhile as the canyons were beautiful.

After walking through the Rocky Hollow Nature Preserve, we wanted to continue to Trail 4 but the stairs up to Trail 4 was too dangerous. There were many icy steps that we need to climb and there were no railings at all. We gave up on our plan and took Trail 10 instead. Nothing much along Trail 10 and the trail was pretty easy to walk.

Along Trail 10, we stopped at Camel's Back and there were a group of people resting there. Not sure why it is called Camel's Back but here is the view from there on the right.

 

Wendy making a big snow ball while walking along Trail 10.

After arriving back to the suspension bridge, we decided to go on Trail 4 to have a look at the Coal Mine that was stated at the map. Here are some of the views along Trail 4.

Halfway along Trail 4, we decided to join Trail 1 by crossing Sugar Creek using the Narrows Covered Bridge.

While crossing the Narrows Covered Bridge, we spotted two hikers walking across Sugar Creek. We stood on the bridge for a while to see if they could make it to the other side of the river. I have to clarify here that we did not bet on whether they will fall into a hole.

 

After the bridge, we continue our journey along Trail 1/2. Why Trail 1/2? Well, We were walking along the icy Trail 2 and soon found ourselves on a section of the trail totally covered with ice. It was way too dangerous to continue on Trail 2. Any mistake and we will tumble all the way down into Sugar Creek, so we decided to take Trail 1 instead. Instead of back-tracking and joining Trail 1, we decided to just slide down the slope to Trail 1. Actually this was equally dangerous because if we overshot when we slid, we would be in Sugar Creek as well. Anyway, we slid down to Trail 1 and continued our journey back to the Nature Center. Below are some of the views along Trail 1/2. Not much photos though as we were walking on a treacherous trail and did not have the luxury to pause and take photos.

 

 

After close to 5 hours of hiking on our own, we finally reached the Nature Center. Overall, the hike was fun but kind of dangerous at certain times. Often, we were faced with ice on the steps of the stairs and sometimes even on the trail. Occasionally, we have to walk on layers of ice and there were moments when we actually slipped and fell. In fact, after we got back to the Nature Center, one of the rangers told us that a boy fell off while climbing up the ladder but luckily, he was not injured. Well, sometimes in life, you do need a bit of adrenaline to spice everything up.

After the hike,  we left Turkey Run State Park and drove back to West Lafayette where we had our dinner at Blue Nile. Wendy had not tried Blue Nile before, so we went there.

Wendy had Jerusalem Salad while I had Lentil Soup.

 

For entrees, Wendy had Combo Kebab while I had Lamb Biryani.
 

After dinner, we went home and this pretty summed up our adventurous day and below is the hike that we took if anyone is interested to try in winter.