Shipshewana, In

Once again, I stopped at Shipshewana, Indiana.  I was there June 1 – 7.  

While there, I walked a bit but mostly biked.  About a mile from my Campground is the Pumpkinvine Trail, another rails to trails path.  The first few days, I drove a mile to bike about 20 miles.  Then I got smart and rode the mile to the trail.  The road is a busy one, but there is a wide shoulder where the Amish and Mennonite walk and bike along with the horse and buggies. 

The trail went past many farms and a couple of RV manufacturers. 

A bad thing about this trail --

There is a Dairy Queen in Middlebury just beside the trail.  I thought that would be great on a warm day, a place to get some ice cream.  But I did not stop, of course I typically ride early in the morning so I did not have any ice cream cravings!

On Tuesday, I went to the flea market in Shipshewana.  It is huge!  Since I am not a shopper, my pedometer showed that I walked 30 minutes without stopping. 

From here, I headed into Michigan with my first stop being in Manistee, MI to be a base for touring the west side of Michigan.

Maumee Bay State Park

A few years ago, I visited Maumee Bay State park and enjoyed it so I decided to go back.   I was there May 28 – 31.   While there I walked and biked in the park and I went to the Ottawa National Wildlife refuge and the Maggie Marsh Wildlife area.  One of the reasons I like the park is the huge campsites that are paved.  The picture below is the “yard” of the site beside mine and my RV. 

I didn’t spend much time in Ottawa National Wildlife refuge, but enjoyed a morning in Maggie Marsh Wildlife area.  When I first got to the wildlife area I noticed a Bald Eagle nest and an eagle was feeding her little one --

I spent a good bit of time on the boardwalk --

I spotted this bird that may be a Yellow Warbler (I’m not very good at smaller birds)--

I don’t know what type of bird is in the picture below, but he seemed as curious about me as I was about him.

A disadvantage of the area is that it is very close to the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station.

From here, I headed to Shipshewana, In. 

Shreve, OH

I stayed at Whispering Hills RV park in Shreve, OH May 14 – 27.  When I first got there, there were only a few seasonal people there.  Within a few hours of getting there, we had a tornado warning and I ended up spending 15 minutes or so in a room with several workers.  It hailed quite a bit and we had a lot of wind, but no tornado!

I was surprised when I looked out my window and saw a strange animal in the field next door.  It was a llama--

It’s a bit hard to see in the picture, but the llama has 2 colored eyes.  One is brown and the other blue with a lot of white.  I talked to the owner for a while and he told me that they started getting llamas to protect their goats, kind of like a watch dog.  They no longer have goats, but still have 2 llamas.

The largest population of Amish in this country are in this area and I visited a few of their businesses.  At a nearby town, I took a picture of part of the Walmart parking lot--

This Walmart was right next to the Holmes County Trail, which is a rails to trails path.  This was the first rails to trail that has a dual purpose, they allow the Amish buggies on the path.  One side is for the buggies and one side for bikes and walkers/runners.  If you bike this be warned the sides switch occasionally, so watch the signs!!

I walked 4 miles one day and rode my bike many times on this trail.  I rode 10 – 24 miles depending on how much time I had and the weather. 

There were doing a lot of work at the campground and one day I looked up and saw a cabin being moved by 2 forklifts--

At the campground in a shrub outside the restrooms, I saw a nest with eggs in it.  After finally spotting the bird, I believe it was a sparrow.

A few days later, we had babies. Below they are less than 24 hours old--

Less than 2 days --

About 5 days (they change quickly)--

Unfortunately the day before I left I found the nest at an angle and it was empty.   Something had gotten to it and I am guessing eaten the babies.  I wish it would have happened a day later because I would have never known they did not make it!

I visited the Columbus zoo, which I had heard is one of the top zoos in the country.  It is nice, but I like the National zoo and San Diego zoo better.  I did find the Lorikeet aviary interesting.

They let people feed the parrots and while I was there this man was enjoying feeding them--

Another aviary had birds from I think Africa--

The white faced one is a Blue-Bellied Roller, the other one is a Racquet-tailed Roller.  There were animals other than birds, but I didn’t take many pictures.

From here, I headed to Maumee Bay State Park on Lake Erie. 

Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio–part 2 Old Man’s Cave - 34

As I mentioned yesterday I visited Old Man’s Cave several times.  One of the trips, I hiked from Old Man’s Cave to Cedar Falls.  I really enjoyed this hike.  It had a few moderate sections, but for the most part was easy. 

From my first view of Old Man’s Cave trail, I knew this was an area that I would like.  Below is a picture taken as I headed down into the gorge.

Below was taken looking back up the same area--

Old Man’s Cave is actually a rock overhang that a man lived in many years ago.  The picture below was taken from one side of the creek looking at the overhang.  

The bridges in the area were interesting.  Some were just concrete with metal rails, while others were …

Nice rock bridges--

And then there was this one --

On top is a wooden bridge that is part of the rim trail.  Below is a concrete bridge that was almost a work of art.  Each concrete platform was on a stand alone “leg”.  Each of these was independent and did not attach to the other, there was maybe a half inch between each section.  I found it unique, maybe there was a reason for this design I don’t know. 

Just scenery --

There are several waterfalls in this area, below is Lower Falls.

Upper Falls --

There are a couple of tunnels in this area.  Below is leading down to one of the tunnels --

And a shot from inside the tunnel-

As I mentioned I hiked from Old Man’s Cave to Cedar Falls.  The trail is one that I strongly recommend.  A good bit of the trail was fairly level and beside the creek.  After 3 miles I got to Cedar Falls, took a break and enjoyed the waterfall, then headed back. 

But there were some places where you hiked away from the water and down thru the rocks and under overhangs.

The large boulder above had at least 6 trees growing on it.  The tangled roots made it a bit different. 

I had seen several really cool pictures of the area with fog and one morning I thought I would see if I could take some neat fog photos.  Mine don’t look near as good as those I have seen.

From Hocking Hills, I headed to Shreve, Ohio.  I’ll post that blog in a couple of days. 

Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio

I arrived at Hocking Hills State Park on May 4 and stayed at their campground for 10 days.  If you go, be aware that if you look on their website and a site says it is level, that may not be true.  Most of the sites are off level.  I had to use 3 – 6 leveling blocks on 3 tires to level my RV on a “level” site.

Hocking Hills has several areas to the park and they are not all together.  Old Man’s Cave is the area closest to the campground and I went there 4 or 5 times.  You can drive to all of the areas and go on a short hike to see the main attractions (1 mile or less in most cases, even though some have longer routes).  One day I hiked Old Man’s Cave to Cedar falls and enjoyed the 6 mile round trip hike. 

The pictures below will be from all the areas except Old Man’s cave.  I have too many for one blog, so I’ll post those tomorrow.

Ash Cave is not a true cave in the park, just a very large rock overhang.   To get an idea as to the size of this overhang, if you look through the waterfall there are some people standing on the ground.   

Another area is Cantwell Cliffs.  After the 2 pictures below it was just another hike in the woods.  It was ok, but with so much other beauty around it was not one of my favorites.  

Conkles Hollow starts off with a paved trail, but the best part was after the paved trail ends.  I also found it interesting that just after starting the trail there was a sign that said “You are leaving Hocking Hills State Park and entering Conkle Hollow State Preserve”.  I don’t really understand why everything list Conkle Hollow as part of Hocking Hills, but I guess that really doesn’t matter.

The Rock House is the only true cave in the park.  I really enjoyed this area.  I found the colors and the cracks or windows in the rocks very interesting.   Some of the pictures below are dark, you may need to move your screen around to get a good view of the picture. 

Below is the trail just before the cave entrance.

Tomorrow I will post my pictures from Old Man’s cave.