Exploring Nature at Spring Mill State Park
The journey began in late September,
after traveling two hours south to Mitchell, Indiana. The adventure started in the early afternoon when we arrived at Spring Mill State Park. When arriving at Spring Mill gates we would have originally paid seven dollars for one car to enter the state park, however, we were welcome with free admission into the park. At the gates, you receive a map of the park, a new paper over the events in the park, and an Indiana Recreational guide magazine. The park map illustrated two legends and a trail table and an outline of the entire park of Spring mill. On the map, presents nine total different trails in a dotted lines and arrows point the way to start and follow. As we drive through the park I looked over the map find the trail we planned to visit first. When we parked in the farthest parking lot in the park, we gather supplies for the hike and geared up. Double checking the packed hiking back bags for supplies, spraying bug spray, and tightening our boots to begin our journey.
Pioneer Village
12/8/20
Grist Mill
The beginning of the adventure leads us to the outer west part of the Spring Mill park, Trail 4, a two-mile loop around the historical Pioneer Village and Hamer Cave. As we walk to Trial 4, we came across a small bridge over a creek carrying down the trail to the beautiful historic village. The Pioneer Village was founded in 1814, there are 20 buildings to explore. The centerpiece of the village is the 3-story limestone Grist Mill built-in 1817. It is one of the largest mills in southern Indiana. The mill operated from 1817 until 1892. Farmers from all over brought their corn to the mill to be ground up, and the Hamers kept a portion of the corn as payment and mashed it and distilled it into Old Hamer Whiskey, which was sold in river ports as far south as New Orleans. Spring Mill village become the place that southern farmers come to grind their grains and make trade. In the late 1890s, the mill at Spring Mill Village was abandoned. For the next few decades, neglect and nature transformed The Pioneer village into a ghost town.” The millwheel rotted away, and the roofs collapsed. Although in the late 1920, the state of Indiana took over the village as part of its newest state park. Nowadays, the mill is occupied as a historic museum full of fascinating antiques from the 1800s.
After visiting all 20 of the historical buildings at the Pioneer Village, we adventure through the woods leading us to the Hamer Cave. Hiking through the woods on a path that leads to a small waterfall below an older building with windows and a wheel built next to clear-ish, blue-tinted water that looks stunning. Farther up the trail and climbing stairs to the end of the path there was a narrow limestone cave sitting in the far back. We discovered the Hamer cave system running through waterfalls and creek closest to the Pioneer Village. Research from the DNR website states, “the caves in Spring Mill State Park maintain a constant temperature of 54 degrees throughout the year and supplied power to the grist mill year around." Finishing up Trail 4, heading back to the parking lot to hydrated, and head south to Trail 3. Before starting the hike, we found a picnic table near the trail to enjoy our nutritious lunch we packed for the adventure.
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Hamer Cave
Twin Caves
Donaldson Cave
Hiking through Spring Mill State Park on the several trails made me realize that exploring outstanding features of nature is an extraordinary experience. We covered the majority of Spring Mill park, walked an estimated seven miles in 7 hours. ​We captured the essential beautiful moments of nature trails and the historical part of the park. The experience of the different trails at Spring Mill Park was actually what we vision to encounter during the hiking trip. Throughout the adventure, hiking the trails we captured stunning views of the nature park that were breathtaking.
As we began the extensive and rugged two and a half mile Donaldson’s Trail, walking past thick woods and beautiful scenery of nature and animals, we came across two sets of cave systems. Heading down flight stairs to the right into the forest, walking up a dirt path to the overview of the Donaldsons cave. We could hear other adventures down below eager to climb into the limestone cave. The Bronson Cave, an dark, deep cave that you can observe from an aged wooded balcony. Continuing down Trail 3, we loop around to this aesthetically pleasing stone structure that leads to two flights of stairs. There was an older, rotten set of stairs blocked off and the newer built set of vertical stairs. Climbing down about five flights of stairs to the Twin Caves, a parallel cave system, you could freely walk down into and explore! When approaching the Twin Caves, "you could feel a dramatic temperature change and a constant gust of wind as if you could feel the earth breathing" right in front of you! It was such an amazing feeling and connection with our planet.
Spring Mill Lake
