I went to Turkey Run State Park the other day. It has been a long time since I have taken a hike into the park. I usually park along the area where the Narrows Bridge is and walk into the park from that location. I can get into the park without having to go through the entrance gate. Well they have gotten tired of people doing this and so there were "no parking" signs all along the road in that area. Not wanting to have my car towed away I went through the gate. It cost me $4 and really made me feel very guilty about going into the park through the back door. It is wonderful for someone to have the concern about saving such an area in its natural state. My small part of $4 certainly won't do much toward the maintenance of the area but I certainly appreciate the work that is done here.

I know that there are many other areas similar to this but to have an area like this here in an area that is generally thought of as flat is ironic. I am glad that I went in through the entrance because I would never have travelled to Rocky Hollow if I had gone in the other way. I had forgotten how beautiful this park is.

These pictures cannot capture the beauty of the park but I hope you enjoy them.

Tower for the suspension bridge

Preparing to cross the bridge.

Rocks along the creek

Canoeing on Sugar Creek

The suspension bridge

Sugar Creek from the suspension bridge.

Looking along the cable.

The beautiful sites start as soon as you cross the suspension bridge.

Explanation of the area

Tree growing out of the rocks

These trees growing out of the rocks amaze me.

You can get a feel for the scale of this valley by the person walking.

Rocky Hollow

Liverworts love the climate of this valley.

How do these trees manage to hold on to the rock?

You can just imagine a group of Indians camped here under this outcropping.

They have named the rock in the middle of the picture as Wedge Rock. It was split off the larger rock a few thousand years ago through the forces of nature.

Beautiful. What is it that makes this beautiful to some people? I am sure that some think of this as just a scar on the earth.

Many of the rocks are covered with moss and liverworts and other plants. There have been so many visitors to the area that some of the areas have been cleaned of their plant life.

You can see a pair of legs in the lower left. These belonged to a visitor with a group that was just around the corner. They were foreign visitors and one of their party had climbed up the side of the rocks and could not get down. They were shouting directions to him about areas were he might try to get down. He finally went on up to the top and to a trail and then back down to them following the trail.

I wonder if the first explorers were impressed by the beauty of this area. And the American Indian...what did they feel?

This was the end of my hike. The Punch Bowl was ahead but I had ended the time I had allowed. In my previous visits to the park, I would enter from an area where the trail intersects a county road and so I could get in without paying. After seeing all of these wonderfully preserved sites, I felt guilty for not at least paying for my opportunity to have them available.

On the way back this view was wonderful. The sun was filtering through the trees and there was a slight haze creating a scene that made you feel like you were in a dream.

It is just impossible to capture the feeling that you get when you are there.

The leaves are beginning to turn.

As you look out over Sugar Creek, the suspension bridge is a point of view.

It is just amazing to see these little scooped out places on the rock. How do you suppose these were formed? Notice the little spacer between the upper rock and the lower rock. Why was that left?