Blackwell Horse Camp

We wanted to get away for a week in Savanna. We had cancelled our winter trip to Arizona because of the Omicron surge, had missed traveling, and we’re ready to get back to it.

Our go-to place in Indiana is the Blackwell Horse Camp in the Charles C. Deam Wilderness in the Hoosier National Forest.  No reservations required.  Large open grassy area for parking.  Lovely hiking trails.  The trails are also used by horses, but not heavily. 

We took 3 three-mile hikes.  Day one was perfect — though a bit warm.  We have been having July weather in May — upper eighties and humid.  We hiked down Frog Pond Ridge, an unmarked trail with a few rough spots.

Day two was more humid — it had rained over night.  I addition to the humidity, there was more mud on the trail.   We took the Cope Hollow Trail.  Lots of mud when we were in the flood plain but things dried out when we climbed up to a ridge.  Many of the wildflowers are past their prime, but we saw purple spiderwort, white gentian, violets, and ragwort.  The unseasonably hot weather has really pushed the season.

Day three we didn’t get off too early as it had rained hard overnight and we knew the trails would be muddy.  We took the Grub Ridge trail from the end of the campground.  It took us down to the flood plain.  From there we followed numerous creek forks until we climbed back to the campground on an unnamed trail.  The beginning of the Grub Ridge trail was rather muddy and churned up by horses.  Surprisingly, the trail at the bottom along the creek was not muddy. The trail back up to the campground is seldom used by horses (actually they are forbidden but clearly they use it sometimes) so it was generally firm and dry.

Unfortunately didn’t get any photos this time.

We leave here tomorrow for Turkey Run SP.  a park we haven’t visited in years.

-- Janet (text) and David (photos)