Shades State Park

Tuesday
Shades State Park is just a short 10-12 minute drive from Turkey Run. It is smaller, and has a campground but no lodge. Again, the trails are quite rugged, most of them using stream beds for at least part of their length, and again lots of steps and several ladders! As we left the lodge to drive the short distance to Shades, we could see it was quite a foggy morning. It gradually cleared a little, and the sun tried to break through once or twice but didn’t succeed! Just for the purpose of my record, we did trails 1,4,5 and 7, 4 and 5 being the ones with ladders. As we left the park, we passed another covered bridge, Deers Mill, shown in my collage. The picture of me, taken by Roger, was taken at Prospect Point, overlooking the Sugar Creek Valley, fairly early in our hike - I wanted him to take it early before I started getting all hot and sweaty with the humidity! I was fascinated with the base of the tree shown in the bottom row of my collage, as it was quite hollow, yet when you looked up, it was still very much alive. By this time, we’d had enough hiking for the day, and we knew there was a chance of showers coming in during the afternoon, so we set off home, stopping for some lunch/dinner on the way.