Albion, INd.Growing up, Memorial Day weekend camping was an annual activity for my family. Yet as my siblings and I grew older the tradition faded. Years later as my brothers and I found ourselves settled into our adult lives, our homes, and our own families, the call to reinstate our Memorial Day weekends sounded. My extended clan remains in Michigan. My personal crew calls Westfield, Indiana home. In our search for a halfway point for Memorial Weekend Camping 2.0, we discovered Chain O’Lakes State Park in Albion, Indiana. (This is not to be confused with Chain O’Lakes State Park in Spring Grove, Illinois. Luckily, no one has made that GPS mistake yet!) Chain O’Lakes State Park joined the Indiana State Park family in 1960. Melting glaciers passing through the area 13,000 years ago formed the high ridges and twelve lakes featured in the park – nine of which are connected to one another via narrow waterways. In 2012 a portion of the park became home to the Glacial Esker Nature Preserve, intended to protect some of the best examples of glacial land features in the state. Today the park is used for camping, hiking, fishing, boating, and connecting to history and nature. It’s a perfect stomping ground for our growing family with varied interests and needs. Over the years, we’ve taken advantage of most of the park’s offerings during one of their busiest weekends. These are the days when you wait in your car for 20 minutes to pass through the ranger station at the park entrance. The generators hum and campfire smoke settles like a thick blanket over the crowded “electric campsites.” Down in our tent-only neck of the woods, kids zoom by on their bikes until well after sundown. And visitors, snaking down the wooden walkway like a line at an amusement park, wait to rent boats by the hour. Yet, the park makes it easy to find that quiet respite people often seek in nature. With over 20 miles of trails, it’s rare to see more than a handful of day-hikers. On the water, once you paddle through center-of-it-all Sand Lake, boaters spread out and you’re more likely to spot a woodchuck than a human. Now that our kids are older and we have a canoe to call our own, we spend more of our time exploring the park’s namesake. Eastward from Dock Lake, we have searched for beaver and deer along the meandering stream leading to Long Lake where young children may need a get-out-of-the-boat-and-run break. Departing Sand Lake, we have ducked under bridges on the way to Bowen Lake, named after the first European settler to the area. Or, feeling more adventurous, we have ventured west from Sand Lake, navigating tight turns and fallen trees on our way to Weber Lake. Then forward through thick water-plant growth in Mud Lake and still further into Rivir Lake for a birdwatching extravaganza. But it was on our most recent park visit that we faced our biggest challenge yet - the nightly “floating bonfire.” What?! Most summer nights Ranger Richard and his wife venture onto Sand Lake in their rowboat with, quite literally, a boatload of s’more-making ingredients and tools. Behind them they tow a floating fire ring. S’mores on the water sounds like a fun alternative to yet another night around a boring old campfire, but the execution of the activity is more a test of skill than pure entertainment. From approaching the rowboat and receiving the tools and ingredients (Don’t crash! Don’t drop them in the water!) to roasting the marshmallows (Can you get closer? Don’t tip the boat! The fire is floating away! Careful of the hot roasting stick!), we worked hard for our sweet treat. But we persisted and can count our first ever experience at the “floating bonfire” successful; our marshmallows were far from golden brown, but no one ended up in the water or nursing burn wounds. So, whether staying at Chain O’Lakes State Park for a day or a weekend, there is plenty to explore. There are places to escape or connect, to relax or get active, to wander or test skills. Happy trails, *Erin
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AuthorsPete is the founder of Piggyback App. At the time of writing this description, he may or may not be on a horse. |