Versailles State Park: Trails #2 and #3 (Blog Hike #74)

Trails: Trails #2 and #3
Hike Location: Versailles State Park

Geographic Location: east side of Versailles, IN (39.08231, -85.23524)

Length: 2.2 miles

Difficulty: 5/10 (Moderate)

Dates Hiked: Summer 2000, June 2013

Overview:  A pleasant, easy streamside excursion followed by a moderate hillside course.

Park Information: https://www.in.gov/dnr/state-parks/parks-lakes/versailles-state-park/

Hike Route Map: https://www.mappedometer.com/?maproute=940423
Photo Highlight:

Directions to the trailhead: The entrance to the state park is located on the north side of US 50 2 miles east of Versailles.  Pass the gate house, where a small fee will be required.  At the next three intersections, turn right, left, and right in that order.  Park in either the nature center parking lot or the swimming pool parking lot.

The hike: Versailles State Park has an unusual history as park land. Before the land first fell into public hands in 1934 the land was used for farming, but the hills were too steep and the soil too poor to make particularly good farmland.  Thus, in the middle of the Great Depression, the federal government purchased the land for development by the National Park Service as the Versailles Recreation Area. 

            Over the next nine years, the CCC and WPA began planting trees and constructing facilities.  In 1943, the 5300 acres of land were deeded to the state of Indiana, and Versailles State Park was born.  In 1958, Laughery Creek was damned to create 230 acre Versailles Lake, one of the chief attractions of the park today. 

            The park also features a swimming pool complex, three campgrounds, numerous picnic shelters, and three hiking trails totaling 6.5 miles.  This hike takes you on parts of two of the trails, leading you through Fallen Timber Creek Ravine and some of the nicest forest the state park has to offer.           

Trailhead for Trail #3

            Start the hike by picking up Trail #3 on the east side of the main park road near the combined nature center and camp store.  The gravel trail heads east through young floodplain forest with the creek 20 yards to the right and the steep hillside 20 yards to the left.  The forest contains mostly young black walnut, ash, and sycamore with an occasional dying red cedar.            

Hiking Trail #3

            After 0.75 miles of level hiking in the floodplain, the trail crosses Fallen Timber Creek for the first of three times without the aid of a bridge.  Except after a recent rainstorm, these should be dry crossings, requiring only careful navigation of rocks.  If the water is high and current swift, do not attempt to wade the creek.  Tall clay bluffs tower on the opposite shore of the creek.           

Creek crossing

            After the third crossing, the trail takes a sharp right turn at a wooden fence and begins a long, rocky, gradual climb out of the ravine.  At the top of the hill, Trail #3 ends at an intersection with Trail #2, which goes right and straight.  Since the paths reconverge in 0.5 miles, either route can be chosen.  The trail going straight provides an easier and shorter route, leading past Campground B.  The trail going right, the one I will describe, is slightly longer and more difficult, but much more scenic.

            Turning right, the trail dips to cross a drainage on a wooden footbridge and assumes a course that clings to the top of the ravine, which drops 50 to 100 feet down on the right.  You are encompassed by a beautiful mature beech/maple/ash forest with a thin understory.  After 0.5 miles of following the hillside, the trail reaches another wooden fence and turns almost 180 degrees to the left.  Many years ago, the trail continued straight here, dipping to cross a tributary and continue on its course back toward the trailhead, but erosion has forced the trail to be rerouted onto a more gradual, safer course.

Trail #2 along the hillside

            The trail soon intersects the other fork of Trail #2, where a right turn is necessary to continue the hike.  After dropping slightly to cross another tributary, the trail reaches another intersection.  Again, either path can be chosen, as they rejoin at a later point, but this time the right fork is both the more direct and more scenic route.

            Turning right, the trail skirts the ravine on the right with Campground A uphill to the left.  Where the trail appears to come out into the campground, stay to the right and head for where the trail reenters the forest in 100 feet.  From this point, the trail begins a long, steep descent over some old, eroded wooden steps placed into the ground.            

Wooden planks on steep descent

            At the bottom of the hill, the other fork of Trail #2 rejoins at a three-way intersection.  A right turn will lead you down a constructed wooden staircase to the main park road.  Turn right on the road and cross Fallen Timber Creek.  A short walk along the road to Trail #3's trailhead will complete the hike.