Hoosier National Forest
Indiana
Managed by U.S. Forest Service, Eastern Region
644,214 acres (202,814 federal/ 441,400 other)
Website: https://www.fs.usda.gov/hoosier
Overview
Southern Indiana’s Hoosier National Forest was created in 1935 from cutover and abandoned farm land. Six years later an additional 88 acres of old-growth forest was purchased that became Pioneer Mothers Memorial Forest, which has never been cut and is used to study natural succession. A 0.8-mile trail runs through the woods and accesses the Indiana Pioneer Mothers Memorial and Lick Creek Settlement Site. The latter was a community of free African-Americans led by the Quaker Jonathan Lindley from 1819 to 1865, and located nearby is an archaeological site where there was a stockaded village in the 1300s.
Highlights
Pioneer Mothers Memorial Forest, Monroe Lake, Hickory Ridge Lookout Tower, German Ridge Lake, Lick Creek Settlement Site, Sundance Lake, Potts Creek Rockshelter Archeological Site, Lake Tarzian, Rickenbaugh House, Tipsaw Lake, Buzzard Roost Overlook, Clover Lick Barrens, Hardin Ridge Recreation Area, Birdseye Trail, Hemlock Cliffs Trail
Must-Do Activity
There are 266 miles of trails in Hoosier National Forest, including the 36.3-mile Terrill Ridge Trail that enters the Charles C. Deam Wilderness (Indiana’s one and only) and the 24.1 miles of trails around German Ridge Lake. Horse camps provide access to miles of bridle trails, including the 48.7-mile Hickory Ridge Trail. Many of the National Forest’s trails are old roads (even in the Wilderness), so while hiking watch for evidence of house foundations, fences, domestic plants, and cemeteries.
Best Trail
Hemlock Cliffs Trail is a 1.2-mile loop through a sandstone canyon that passes two unique waterfalls. Tall eastern hemlock trees surround both waterfalls that you can walk behind where the cliffs are undercut by erosion in this crumbly sedimentary rock. The falls only flow seasonally, but when they do the trail is often muddy and slippery, so take caution.
Watchable Wildlife
In 1972, wild turkeys were reintroduced to 6,000 acres around Clover Lick Barrens, an area of prairie vegetation. Other birds of interest include red-shouldered hawks, sharp-shinned hawks, scarlet tanagers, and pileated woodpeckers. Timber rattlesnakes and copperheads are two venomous snake species found here. Mammals include fox squirrels, raccoons, and white-tailed deer, which attract hunters in season.
Instagram-worthy Photo
Southern Indiana is known for its Karst topography, which often forms limestone caves, as well as some beautiful Swiss-cheese formations that can be seen along the Hemlock Cliffs Trail.
Peak Season
Summer
Fees
None
Road Conditions
Road access is paved to the pullout for the Pioneer Mothers Memorial Forest, and the unpaved road to Hemlock Cliffs Trailhead was a good enough for our mini-van.
Camping
There are horse camps at Shirley Creek, Blackwell, Hickory Ridge, and Youngs Creek, in addition to other campgrounds dispersed throughout Hoosier National Forest.
Wilderness Areas
Charles C. Deam Wilderness
Related Sites
Shawnee National Forest (Illinois)
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial (Indiana)
George Rogers Clark National Historical Park (Indiana)
Nearest National Park
eastern hemlock, eastern white pine, shortleaf pine, eastern redcedar
American beech, tulip-poplar, basswood, Ohio buckeye, white ash, green ash, American elm, winged elm, black walnut, white oak, northern red oak, black oak, chinquapin oak, rock chestnut oak, post oak, blackjack oak, sugar maple, red maple, ironwood, sassafras, black cherry, black gum, black walnut, honeylocust, Kentucky coffeetree, flowering dogwood, redbud, basswood, sycamore, mockernut hickory, shagbark hickory, pawpaw, slippery elm, butternut, hophornbeam, sweetgum, mountain laurel
Explore More – Who was Charles C. Deam, the namesake for the only Wilderness in Indiana (designated in 1982)?
Learn more about this and the 154 other National Forests in our new guidebook Out in the Woods