Podcast – Hiking Trail 3 at McCormick’s Creek State Park

From the Book:

Greetings, today we will hike Trail 3 at McCormick’s Creek State Park.

Before we start, I would like you to know that this episode is based upon my book, McCormick’s Creek State Park, available on my web site, http://www.mossyfeetbooks.com. While visiting the web site you can subscribe to it and receive email notifications of when I publish a new book or other content, like this video and podcast. You can also subscribe to the Mossy Feet Books You Tube Channel to ensure you don’t miss any of my content.

Trail 3 is a rugged, .8 long hike and has 3 access points, one of which is the Canyon Inn’s parking area, another is a small parking lot along the main park road and the 3rd is near the Stoney Restroom and amphitheater.

I usually begin the hike from the parking lot of Canyon Inn. From here the trail descends gradually through a thick, forested land before reaching the spur trail that connects to the parking lot along the road. The trail turns left towards McCormicks Creek Falls.

McCormick’s Creek Falls drops ten feet, climaxing the 150 foot total drop of McCormick’s Creek during its passage through the mile long canyon. The falls is just a short distance from the main park road and is also accessible from Trail 3. An easy to get to overlook allows visitors a good look at this pretty waterfall. Hikers traveling along Trail 3, which follows the McCormick’s Creek rocky stream bed, also have grand views of the falls and the canyon.

The canyon was formed by run off from glacial melt waters at the end of the last Ice Age. The northern 2/3 of Indiana has been formed by glacial ice that formed during the Pleistocene Era

During the Pleistocene Era a vast glacial sheet covered most of North America.
Pleistocene Era
The Pleistocene Age began roughly two million years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago. During this vast period of time four episodes of extensive glaciations covered most of what is now Indiana. These glaciers created two vastly different landscapes. Roughly the northern two thirds comprise what geologists call the Tipton Till. Glaciers covered this area during all four glacial events. The southern third was probably never touched by the ice. It is a hilly, heavily forested land that still bears the marks of the vast water runoff that occurred when the Ice Age ended around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.

The ice did not reach the site of McCormick’s Creek State Park. When the ice began melting about 50,000 years ago the melt waters began eroding the earth’s surface carving the canyon that now forms the majority of McCormick’s Creek. The climate during that time was wetter and colder, thus the erosion took place at a faster rate than occurs today. The Falls is still eroding the creek bed, but at a much slower rate than during historic times. The running water eroded some of the areas of the softer limestone formations faster than some of the harder formations. This type of geological formation is called Karst Geography. Visitors will find sinkholes, caves and natural bridges formed over the ages. The canyon at McCormick’s Creek is about one mile long and almost 100 feet deep.

From the falls the trail follows the bed of McCormick’s Creek. This trail may not be passable during periods of high water. A small stone shelter, called Creekside Shelter, stands a bend of the creek. There is a picnic table in the shelter, from which a nice view of the falls is visible downstream.

The trail continues upstream for some distance before turning left to make the long trek uphill, part of which is climbing an impressive wooden stairway.

The trail is short, rugged and offers some pretty views of the waterfall and the canyon. Some of the photos in the video are of a winter hike I took while we stayed there.

On the next episode we will visit some of the covered bridges of Parke County, Indiana. The episode is based upon my book, Turkey Run State Park. The episode is also based on my book, McCormick’s Creek State Park, available on the web site, http://www.mossyfeetbooks.com. The book is the first book in the 10 volume, for now, series called the Indiana State Park Travel Guide Series. The books contain interesting information about the history, geology and features of the parks as well as tons of information about day trip destinations in the area of the park. I encourage you to visit the web site and subscribe to it.

I hope you enjoyed this podcast and thank you for listening.