A 5000-mile road trip through some of the
highest points of the Eastern United States, July 12-24, 1998
INDIANA & KENTUCKY Leaving Cave-in-Rock, Illinois, our next goal was to see my sister in Columbus, Ohio. It was a far trip, so we thought to break it up and stop in the area where I grew up as a kid- Galena, Indiana. We set our sites, but as time flew, we decided to stop early at Wyandotte Woods State Recreation Area. The area is west of Louisville, KY by only about 45 mins with good camping facilities. We were the only folks in the camp ground so we wandered about, went swimming, cooked a fine dinner and got into the jug quite a bit. Before we new it, it was pitch black and we were running through corn fields in a mad frenzy. The next morning, not feeling a-hundred percent, we were off to see my old stomping grounds then to see my sister.
Times change, Galena didn't. It was still a small town, same schools, however I wonder how much longer the 7-12 grade school will be able to hold all the students...The outcrops where I did my first fossil collecting (horn corals, crinoid stems) were now covered by neighborhoods, but the creeks I had access to as a kid were thankfully still good producers of geodes and fossiliferous limestone. (Photo at right, and old swimming hole near a limestone bluff along the Little Indian Creek.) (Notice the gravel bars at this bend in the creek. The faster moving outside current has carved the limestone and deposited its bedload on the inside corner. These gravel bars hold plenty of geodes and fossil limestone).
A creek in the Wyandotte Woods State Recreation Area, outside of Louisville, Kentucky.
Little Indian Creek, near Galena, Indiana
