My new hobby - State Parks

So my mom and I have a new hobby: going to and camping at state parks.  The pictures from this post are from two weekends ago when I went to Big Ridge State Park.  Mom didn't go with me on this one as she had hurt her knee and it was really bothering her this day.  It was a pretty park but not first on my list of ones to go back to of the ones we've been to so far.

Pretty flower (obviously)

I went on the lake trail to the park office.  This is also the trail to the Big Ridge Dam.  At some point I wouldn't mind coming back and doing the Ghost House loop trail.

More pretty flowers

A view of the lake that I bet will be really gorgeous in a few weeks when the fall colors come in.

I like to take pictures of flowers.

Along the lake trail to the dam is this cemetery.  It's a short jaunt up a small hill.

From the cemetery you can see the lake through the trees.  It's a rather pretty view.

What I really liked about this headstone was that it said she was born "ABOUT 1800".  The man who I'm guessing was her husband on the next headstone had an exact birth date.  I also just liked how the flowers looked in front of this one.

There were alot of "McCoy" graves in this cemetery.  This is just one of them,

This is actually 3 shots that I used a free software program merge into one.  I just thought it was nice looking with the fallen tree going into the lake next to it.

Pine Cones

I was really grateful to finally see the dam at this point.  I also had to decide just after this about whether to do the rest of the trail or go back.  I ended up deciding to do the rest of it, mostly because I wanted to see what the other half was like for if mom wanted to do it at some point.

And now of course for some views from the dam...

The view of the dam from the other side.  I'm really proud of this one in the way the reflection in the water turned out.

I'm really looking forward to a Wild Foods Festival that we'll be going to at Fall Creek Falls state park in late October.  I'm really hoping there will be a class on knowing what mushrooms are edible.  But these mushrooms I just thought looked cool on the end of fallen log.

More flowers

So at this point I had to get back to the car.  I decided to walk around the other side of the lake since that would be shorter (and easier) than going back on the same trail.

Another one where I really love the reflection in the lake

Part of that way back was on a small trail called the Ole Mill Trail.  I thought the sign was cute.

I wish this dragonfly picture had been in focus a little better, but I still really liked the bright blue on it.

And here of course is the "Ole Mill"...

After what was an approximately 3 mile hike, I was incredibly grateful to get back to the car.  But at some point we'll come back to this park and probably camp one night here.