The view from the top of Cedar Bluff must be breathtaking.

Someday, perhaps I’ll see it.

Our hike of the day was a visit to Cedar Bluffs nature preserve, a 23-acre property owned by The Nature Conservancy.  This is truly one of those places you must want to find because you won’t simply stumble upon it.  In fact, we intentionally looked around for about 45 minutes before we found the darned thing.

The first problem was the fact that directions to the preserve are somewhat challenging.  In this case we were using our well-worn first edition of one of our favorite travel books, Nature Walks in Southern Indiana, by Alan McPherson.  Unfortunately,  it would appear that area roads have changed a bit since the entry was written and I had not yet done further online research to lock the coordinates into the GPS receiver.

As it were, the long drive through the countryside was enjoyable nonetheless.

We finally arrived at the preserve but it took a practiced eye to notice the trail as the sign for the preserve was missing.   The wooden posts are still in place but for some unknown reason, the sign boards themselves are gone.  Undaunted, we parked in the 2-car parking area across the road and headed down the muddy trail.

The initial path crosses the flat floodplain of Clear Creek for several hundred yards until it passes a metal plaque discussing the preserve and then arrives at Cedar Bluff itself.

On the gray, wet day we visited, it wasn’t hard to pretend you were hiking somewhere in the Smoky Mountains.  The steep bluff, nearly 100 feet tall and almost sheer in places, is studded with limestone outcroppings and loose boulders, making it feel very much like a mountain trail hard against a rollicking freestone creek.

The trail itself forces you to hopscotch rocks on the seam where creek and cliff meet for several hundred yards until a side-canyon allows hikers to ascend to the ridgetop.   Alas, our journey ended before we would sample the rarefied air on top.

The trail along the creek was an ankle-busting exercise among wet rocks and muddy footholds that provided a veritable smorgasbord of potential orthopedic injuries.  As we were trying to keep our clothes reasonably clean for dinner that evening, and the fact that we were burdened with heavy camera gear including a full-sized tripod, we decided to turn back before someone took a swim in the swift current of the icy creek.

So, someday soon we will be back to finish the hike in earnest.  For anyone else contemplating a trip, it would be prudent to wear good boots, old clothes, avoid wet weather and leave the small fry at home unless they are more sure-footed than a mountain goat.

That is, if you can even find the darn place.

Cedar Bluff Nature Preserve

Bookmark It

Hide Sites