This year fall has been wonderful – unseasonably warm, sunny, and dry. We’ve been taking advantage of it and exploring some new trails. Today we ventured to Bluffton, IN to explore the Ouabache State Park. What a beautiful park with miles of trails in the woods and a lake. This was a perfect place for our adventure.
History of the Park
The land on which the park sits was once home to the Miami native people. They called the Wabash River, along which the park runs, Waapaahsiiki, which is where the name Ouabachee comes from. It is the phonetic spelling of the native name for the river. The park was established as a state forest and game preserve in the 1930s with the Civilian Conservation Corp constructing buildings, the fire tower, and roads. As a preserve the land was used to raise pheasant, quail, rabbits, and raccoons. It even temporarily housed black bears, bison, elk, and wolves. Then, in the 1960s the park was designated as a state recreation area and opened to the public, In 1983 it achieved state park status.
Our Adventure
We parked near the bison exhibit and walked along the right side toward the woods. Near the back of the exhibit, we found a trail sign for trails one and five. We followed trail five to the right The trail wound around and felt like it was more in the open and not fully wooded. There were trees everywhere, they just weren’t dense so it felt a little like hiking in a field. Despite that it was beautiful and peaceful.
As the trail wound around, we came to a bridge. Since it has been dry, there was no water under the bridge, but I imagine during the spring and a wet fall, there is. We still enjoyed climbing over it and continuing into the woods. Finally, we felt like we were truly entering the woods and the foliage was so beautiful.
Eventually we came to a trail sign indicating trails three and five to the left and two and three to the right. We turned left to continue on trail five. This led us to one of the most beautiful areas – the land of sugar maple trees. These trees have beautiful yellow leaves and on the day of our visit, they were at their peak color.
At this point we came to a sign indicating a split in trail five. In one direction was trail five and in the other trails three and five. We followed just trail five which continued in the woods until eventually coming out of the woods to cross the road. After crossing the road, we found the continuation of the trail, which felt like the start of the trail; a little less densely wooded and more like walking in a field with trees on the sides.
We walked for a bit and then crossed another road and walked past a field before re-entering the woods. At this point, we entered the pine tree forest which was nearly as beautiful as the sugar maple tree forest. Not long after, we found another bridge.
Shortly after this, we came to a parking lot near Kunkel Lake. You can’t see the lake from here, but it is to the right where there is a hill. We continued across the parking lot to the trail. This was another beautiful wooded section. And then we came upon a sign showing trail four to the right and trails four and five straight ahead. We continued straight and followed the trail until it came to the road. At this point, I thought we shouldn’t be crossing the road and that we had somehow gone off trail. What I didn’t realize is this was a different road and we did need to cross it. If we had, we would have continued to the bison exhibit and back to our car. Instead, we retraced our steps back to trail four and took that trail. This led us back to the parking lot near Kunkel Lake. I checked the map and noticed a trail around Kunkel Lake that would lead back to the bison exhibit and our car.
Our total hike was 6.5M, a little longer than if we had just hiked all of trail five. It was a wonderful hike; the fall colors had peaked, a lot of the leaves had fallen, we nearly had the trail to ourselves, and the weather was perfect.
Sunny’s Perspective
There were so many great smells on this trail. I stopped often to smell things on the trees and other vegetation. And we saw squirrels! They were running up and down the trees and across the trail. This place was fantastic and I hope we visit again soon.
Our Rating
Sunny and I give Ouabache State Park 3.5 out of 4 paws up. The trail is beautiful, well-maintained, and fairly well-marked. The best part for us, is that you can walk for miles. I would not recommend the trail for those with stability issues. Although it is mostly flat, there are tree roots along the trail. There are also several different parking areas and vault toilets in the park. All in all, this is a wonderful park that I recommend for hiking or a picnic. There are also campsites and a lake.
How Do I Get There?
The address for Ouabache State Park is 4930 E. SR 20, Bluffton, IN. Continue on IN-201 until you see the Quabache State Park sign on the left. Keep going straight past the sign until you come to the park entrance. After paying the entrance fee at the gate house, follow the signs to the bison exhibit.
For more information about Ouabache State Park, check out these websites: