Prophetstown in Winter
When one of my friends visited me for a weekend vacation from schoolwork, we decided to avoid cabin fever by visiting Prophetstown State Park. The naturalist at Prophetstown, Angie Manuel, was nice enough to send me an email that shared some cool things to see in the park. KT and I bundled up and braved the freezing temperatures. We drove through the park toward the undeveloped portion and passed the construction that will be a water park by this summer. When we reached the end of the road, we got out and walked on a trail through the gorgeous praire.
We knew from the email that we could expect to see an eagle's nest at the far end of the trail. Sure enough, when we got close to the end we heard an eagle call and then came upon the huge nest!
We never saw the eagles but we definitely heard them! However, we did see crows, geese, and Mute Swans. We walked back through the prairie while the temperature continued to drop.
It was pretty chilly when the sun went away even with all of our layers. KT did jumping jacks to keep warm.
Luckily, we had permission from Angie to build a fire in the Native American council house on the property. We gathered dry grasses and put the firewood in an A-shape. After much trial and error, we finally built a successful fire. It may have taken us a while to get the fire started but it was so worth it in the end!
Overall, we had a fun but chilly afternoon at the park. The park is only about 20 minutes from Purdue's campus so next time you're in Boilermaker country you should definitely spend some time at Prophetstown!
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Published: 02/17/2013
