How Do You Find Places to Visit?
I’m often asked how I find all the different places that we visit. It’s a combination of searching the internet, looking at online maps, and getting recommendations from other people. I spend a lot of time doing that and have a spreadsheet of places that we want to visit. I also log all our adventures so I can remember where we’ve been. One of the other ways I find locations is what happened today. We plan to go one place, but it doesn’t work out so we find a nearby park via GPS. What would we do without GPS?
Today we planned to visit the Pumpkinvine Trail since we’ve had a lot of rain and I thought the dirt trails would be too muddy. I researched parking areas and picked one. The only problem is that the place GPS directed me to did not have a parking lot and I could not find one. That’s when I pulled over and asked GPS to find a nearby park. It directed us to Riverbend Park in Middlebury, Indiana. Although it was not what we had planned, we had a good time and found some trails in the woods.
Our Adventure
When we first drove up to the park I didn’t think we would find any trails. It had a basketball court, playground equipment, a picnic shelter, and restrooms. We walked past all of that and onto the grass. I figured we could at least get a little walk on the grass. What I did not expect was to find a trail in the woods at the back of the park. There were no signs directing us to it; we just got lucky.
As we entered the woods there were little signs with pages of children’s books. I later learned these are for story time events that are held at the park. We followed the trail to the right as it followed the Elkhart River. The river was quite high and moving fast. Despite Sunny’s desire to get down to the water, we just observed it from the bank. There did not seem to be any place to get down and get her feet wet much to her disappointment. This did not stop her from checking it out several times.
A short while later we came across a bridge that travelled over the river. Sunny was not a fan of this bridge. It was made of metal with large holes and her little paws kept getting stuck. Luckily she had someone to carry her across. Once on the other side we continued hiking along the river on the trail. And a short time later we crossed another bridge. This one was more to her liking since it was wood.
Eventually we found a section of wood boardwalk across the marsh. Some of the boards had large spaces between them so the girl with small paws had to be careful. As we walked on the boardwalk we came to a spot that led to a picnic bench. After checking it out we continued on the original boardwalk which led to some stairs up to a housing development.
At this point we turned around and tetraced our steps back to where we entered the woods and found a gravel path on the other side of the picnic shelter. This took us back to the front parking lot along Warren Street where we parked our car. Our total hike was just over 1M.
Our Rating
Sunny and I rate Riverbend Park 2.5 out of 4 paws up. Although it’s a nice park, the trail is only a mile long and it’s not that challenging. It’s basically a narrow trail that winds through the woods, along and over the Elkhart River. We did enjoy seeing the water, but Sunny could not find a spot to get down to it. She always prefers to get her toes in the water. All in all this is a nice spot to picnic and take a short hike afterwards if you are in the area.
This trail would not be appropriate for those using wheelchairs or other mobility devices. It’s narrow and can get muddy after the rain. It also can get a little buggy since it’s near the water so you may want to use bug spray.
How Do I Get There?
The address for the parking are at Riverbend Park is 511 E. Warren St., Middlebury, Indiana. From 69 take exit #348 toward Lagrange and follow 20 W for 28 miles. Turn right on County Road 43 and after 1.5M turn left onto County Road 16. Follow that for about a mile and turn left at the Riverbend Park sign. You can either park at the lot at the front or follow the road to the basketball court and playground area. To find the trail walk past the playground equipment and the large sand box near the tree. Keep walking toward the woods, it will seem like you can’t enter the woods. Once you get close you will see the entrance to the trail on the left side.
Please note this park is in Amish country so be cautious of horse and buggies and bikes on the side of the road as you drive. In some areas there is not much of a shoulder so please give them plenty of room and slow down when passing them.
Want more information about the park? Check out this website: