Hiking: Indian Cave State Park (1)

After seeing an acquaintance post on Facebook a week ago about how many hikes she'd done during 2019, I thought that adding a hiking goal for myself for 2020 would be fun.  We've been on several in our short six months that we've been here.  It's different to do hikes during the winter that we did over the summer. It's been enjoyable to hike in jeans and a sweatshirt compared to the summer heat, but we do miss the flora and fauna.

On New Years Day we rallied the troops for hike number 1 at Indian Cave State Park.  This state park is about an hour and twenty minutes South of us.  We didn't realize that we'd pass through Iowa and Missouri, to get the the park that is actually in Nebraska.  I was really surprised when we saw the Missouri sign!  We crossed the Missouri River twice-it really is pretty-and around here it's the division between Nebraska and Iowa state lines.  

We left a little later in the morning than I'd originally anticipated, but it worked out because Max fell asleep after just a few minutes in the car and slept for the entire drive which was awesome!  Not only was it a peaceful car ride, but he was much more agreeable on the hike since he got a nap in.  Mason and I even started a new podcast-Serial.  We only listened to the first episode, but we're going to continue listening.  Only recently did we discover that there are many bald eagles in Nebraska, and we've seen quite a few of them. On this drive we saw approximately 10.  They are so cool.  It's fun to see their large nests, and see them along the waterways.

When we got to the park we decided to head for the cave area.  I knew that the stairs were closed due to the flooding that happened in Nebraska this spring.  I didn't realize that you couldn't even really see the cave and that it was essentially blocked.  When we arrived we could see the stairs had been damaged.  The cave contains prehistoric Native American petroglyphs and can be viewed from the boardwalk.  We saw part of the rock structure from the road, but I don't know when or if it will open anytime soon for the public.

Overall the park was much muddier than I had anticipated.  Things had been frozen a few days prior, but the break in the temperature (about 48 degrees) helped things to soften, and since this area was largely under water most of the Spring/Summer/Fall, we think it was just still saturated.  We attempted a trail on the East part of the park (trails 9/10), but they were pretty muddy and we didn't want to continue upwards on a downwards mudslide.

We got in the car (again) and drove to a different trailhead area, that also appeared to be washed out.  By this time I was getting pretty frustrated because I really didn't want this day to be ruined by mud after we'd driven so far.  The area at that trailhead happened to be the old ghost town of Ar. Deroin which was founded in 1853.  It was an important steamboat landing and shipping point for grain.  There was an old schoolhouse, mercantile. log cabin, merry-go-round, and a few other items of interest.

It ended up that we passed a "do not enter" area and found a different trailhead we thought we could attempt.  It was muddy, but we decided to go for it.  We set off on the trail (3a).  This part of the trail was about 1.5 miles with various ups and downs.  The boys had fun (mostly) getting muddy, running, playing, and eating along the trail.  Mason and I took turns holding Max's hand and comforting whichever child was needing attention.  Halfway through this trail my mood started to turn and I was rejoicing that for January 1st the weather was nice enough to be outdoors hiking and that we finally were getting somewhere.

This portion of the trail led to the road in this area and a scenic overlook that looked down on the Missouri River.  After stopping for a quick break and a family photo we started off on trail 3 which connected to trail 2 eventually leading back to the car (3.5 miles).  This trail was up and down, and parts were drier (yay!). We passed by some camp sites, and abandoned windmill, and the Half-Breed Cemetery .  This trail had some ups and downs, but some nice views of the Missouri River and smaller trail offs.  The sun was lowering and created a pretty orange glow among the trees.  The boys caught a glimpse of a few deer and even found a dead fish (missing its head) on the trail.

We made it back to the car before dark and were a little muddier than when we started, but overall we had an enjoyable time.  I'd go back in summer or early Fall when it is drier and it would be a nice place to camp.