Brown County State Park - Indiana Department of Natural Resources
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 39.160684, -86.248640
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| Ogle Lake Parking - VERY crowded on a weekend. |
TRAIL MAP:
Brown County State Park Map - Indiana Department of Natural Resources
HIKE DISTANCE: 9.1 miles
THE HIKE:
This was hike 1 of 2 driving from Missouri back to New Jersey. Although it was against my better judgement to hike here on a weekend day, it was necessary in order to fit with my plan. It was even more insanely crowded than I expected. Half of Indianapolis must have been there on this day. Just not my cup o tea.
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| Heading from the parking lot (where I nabbed one of the last two parking spots) to the Ogle Lake dam. |
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| Most people do the loop around the lake. |
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| Ogle Lake |
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| Bypassing the lake loop to ascend on Trail 11. |
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| Ogle Lake from Trail 11. |
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| This rock hop had a couple of puddles of water. All of the other creeks encountered were bone dry. |
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| Leaving Trail 11 to the Trail 9 loop where we encountered fewer people than we had so far. |
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| The Merlin Bird ID sound app had picked up a red-headed woodpecker. There were actually two talking back and forth. Both were juveniles that did not yet have red heads. I encountered a red-headed adult later in the hike but he eluded the camera. |
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| The brochure says you have to return on Trail 11 but I wanted to try for a loop so we turned right towards the campground instead of left back to Trail 11. |
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| It's a nice campground with tons of campers and RVs. This was actually the most peaceful part of the hike. |
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| We made a right on the park road and road walked to... |
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| ... a vista. The vistas in this park are all along the park road accessible by vehicle. |
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| Heading back over to the campground ... |
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| ... where we turned right and walked along the campground road that runs parallel to the park road and has a little less traffic. The park road was almost a constant stream of traffic. |
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| Entering Ogle Hollow Preserve. |
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| Trail 4 exits Ogle Hollow Preserve heading back to Ogle Lake. |
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| Joining the conga line around the lake. |
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| Back at the parking lot where people were circling and circling for a spot. Once I managed to get out of the park, I sat in bumper to bumper traffic that was backed up from people going in one of the other park entrances. Hoping for a better hike on day two of the trip. |
