Tuesday August 11, 2020. Turkey Run State Park.

We found our absolute favorite place today. Turkey Run State Park in Indiana.                                                                                                                                                                   This is a must see if you are ever in the area.  The forest reminded me of what Brandon Mull described in his FableHaven books.  The best word that we all decided that fit the forest is mythical.  The moss seemed to be crawling along the rocks with us.  I was waiting for the trees to come alive and start interacting with us. We expected to see unicorns and ogres and fairies. We found hollowed out trees where magical creatures could live.  The worms there were 6 inches longer then worms back home so we decided that they were actually magical beings that grew 10 times their size in the night.  Seriously, it seemed like we were in a totally different world today.  We loved it!!!  If you could have heard us making up stories about the animals and unseen creatures today, you would have laughed at us.  Everything seemed so magical.  The kids even found a place that Santa Clause could live. Oh. . and Graham found bubbles coming up out of the lake so we concluded that mermaids lived there.  We walked on bridges, wooden walk ways, rocky trials, river crossings and so much more.  What a blast today was.                                                                                          The park is broken up into trials.  There are about 10 trails.  We only explored 3 of them.  In total, we hiked 7 miles. Nobody complained about the hiking, not even Taj.  It was because we found something magical around every corner. The kids didn't realize how tired they were until we were done.   I'm not kidding, this forest needs to be in some fairy movie or something. The pictures don't do it justice but enjoy!!!!!  

    The plants here were growing upside down.  What??????

70 steps to get to the trails.  This was just the beginning of stairs.  We climbed so many stairs today.  

 The blue and yellow highlighted trails are the trails we went on today.  I wish we could have done all of them.  But, we saw so much just on our adventure.  

 We all decided that this is the dragons cave.  I told the boys to go and find the dragon. 

This hollowed out tree is the home for a centaur or a griffin:)

Beautiful heart rock for our Red Nana!!!

This is the river that the mermaids live in.  And some weird fish that gets up to 2 feet long. The kids had fun finding them in the water. 

I wanted this tree to come to life and play with us.  

Fairy disguised as a butterfly

All the kids got in the river up to their thighs.  I looked over and Taj was straight up swimming.  I died laughing.  He is all in!!!

Skipping rocks

Full moons here.  

Lunch with a view!!!

This lizard just stared at us.  He wouldn't move at all.  We decided that he is the warrior protecting all the magical creatures. 

This is a door where fairies or trolls can go into their homes.  

At one point we had to climb down about 140 steps of ladders.  Oh man,it was so cool.  

                                      When we got back to the trailer the kids went swimming.  Today was wonderful.  This stop was so worth it.  I'm so glad we stopped here.  Tomorrow we hit our last destination here in Indiana.  Beautiful state.  I love it.