Monday, July 21, 2014

Cedar Bluffs

There are a good number of established trails and state parks around south-west Indiana. Cedar Bluffs remains one of the less discovered locations. I like trails that are less manufactured and more rugged and Cedar Bluffs gets a 8/10 for that. It is lush green, has water bodies, plenty of small creatures and hardly any noise.


It was a nice warm day and we drove south along S Ketcham Rd until we saw a tiny black board marking the entrance to Cedar Bluffs. It is basically a protected nature preserve and you are cautioned to not go off trail and ruin its delicate fauna. 

Ramya had been there before so she was to guide me through the trail. 

The trail started out pretty and innocuous. I let Ramya lead our party and used my camera to cover the walk in google glass-like fashion.


We walked until we hit the stream that goes along the trail. A number of people seem to come here for fishing.

 






On the other side of the trail was this rocky cliff that we had to get to later. 

At one point the trail turned to the left but we decided that we knew better and ended up making our own trail. That is when the fun started.


The trail got a lot less trail-like and we had to now find a way to get to the cliffs from there. So we turned left and headed uphill. 


The place was now a maze of spiderwebs and trees. Note: You will have to leave your arachnophobia at home to come here.

Lost. Yes.


No we were totally off.

After unwillingly and unintentionally destroying a dozen spider homes, we compass-ed our way back to the true trail and we decided to stick to it from that point on. 

Win. And we learnt something.

The trail is actually a smaller stream that joined the one we walked along.

Trail 

Not trail

A little farther on, Ramya found some parts of the trail that she actually remembered!


Like Ariel's grotto but with snakes.

We stayed along the trail until we could get back on the hillock we had seen and walked down the other side of it back to our car. Overall a pretty fun place. I recommend it.