Daytripping around the Hoosier state

Take a ride on the Turkey Run side

Drive less than an hour west of Indianapolis, and you can stand in a steamy tropical swamp watching dragonflies with two-foot wingspans buzz above the fern-like trees. A six-foot-long millipede crawls through the mud at your feet.

In Indiana? Yes! That is, if you use your imagination to place yourself 300 million years into the geologic past when Turkey Run State Park was a sweltering, insect-infested rain forest crossed by tidal creeks and estuaries.

Imagine yourself in an area similar to the mouth of today's Amazon River where fresh-water rivers and streams meet the salty ocean. Giant rushes and now-extinct scaled trees line the coastline; iguana-sized amphibians and sharp-toothed reptiles hunt for insects.

Today's sandstones and shales, which make up the magnificent ravines along the park's trails, are the remnants of the shorelines from this part of geologic time.

Whew! Now that you're overheated from hiking around in this tropical environment, time-travel forward 300 million years to the last Ice Age (10,000 years ago). Icy winds from a dirt-covered glacier chill you to the bone. Trumpeting herds of mammoths paw the tundra in front of the glacier looking for snow-covered grasses to eat. Pebbles, gravels and dirt from bedrock of what is now the northern United States and Canada are left behind as the glacier melts.

Today, we understand that Turkey Run's scenic ravines and canyons were carved by the forceful torrent of melting water from the glacier. In some of the streams of the park, you can see bowl-shaped potholes carved into the rock by current-driven pebbles and gravels swirling in depressions in the sandstone.

Once you get the hang of thinking in geologic time, it's fun to imagine what the world was like millions of years ago. Sherlock Holmes in hiking boots!

Turkey Run's scenic ravines and canyons were carved by the forceful torrent of melting glacial water.

Remnants of ancient time are easy to find along the trails through Turkey Run. Look for seams of coal formed from swampy jungles and fine layers in the lichen-covered sandstones formed by shifting sand bars in an ancient river. Human history is evident as well; learn about the ways that people used many of the resources there, such as quarrying the quartz-rich sandstone for use in glass-making.

Turkey Run State Park is located 48 miles from Indianapolis, and can be reached by taking I-465 to I-74; go northwest on I-74 (38 miles) to SR 32; go west on SR 32 for 4.5 miles. There is a $2 car fee. Please don't collect fossil or rock samples in this park; leave them for everyone else to enjoy.

This one-day geologic trip through time is brought to you by the Indiana Geological Survey.

For more information, visit the Indiana Geology Today Web page at:

http://www.indiana.edu/~igs

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