Written by Devlin Stalion.
When you ask people where to go hiking near Bloomington, Indiana, the most prevalent responses are, “Have you been to Brown County State Park, or McCormick’s Creek State Park?” While both of those locations have multiple, well travelled trails (and I'll explore them in more detail in future posts), there are many more options in or near Monroe and Brown Counties.
My go-to location this past year has been Yellowwood State Forest, because it's both gorgeous and so close to Bloomington. The property is maintained by the Indiana DNR, between Bloomington and Nashville, Indiana. My go-to map service shows it's 14.4 miles (28 minutes) from Sample Gates, in Bloomington.
There are multiple hiking options ranging from 0.3 to 6+ miles. The designated hiking trails are as follows:
Yellowwood Lake loop: 4.5 miles
Scarce O’Fat loop: 4.7 miles
Jackson Creek: 1.5 miles
Also available to hikers are the 19 miles of horse trails that intersect with the hiking trails in various locations. With the horse trails, you could easily link together several loops and get in 20+ miles of hiking in if you really wanted to.
My personal favorite trail is the 4.5 mile loop that circles the lake because it has such great views of the lake. My preferred starting point is in the parking lot near the boat ramp on the north end of the lake, near the “Yellowwood Youth Camping Area.” Starting from this same parking lot, you have the choice of doing the shorter Jackson Creek Trail by itself, or adding it onto the loop around the lake to create a 6(ish) mile loop.
There are a few elements that keep me coming back: the cedar tree area on the north side of the lake, the area on the northwest side where several larger trees have been gnawed on by beavers, and the sunset views from anywhere on the east side of the lake. I love to come back to the lake in the evenings just to catch the sunsets.
I hope you’ve been inspired to visit this magical outdoor space, or to get outside and explore more wherever you are!
All photos in this post were taken by me at Yellowwood State Forest.
The Indiana DNR's website includes helpful trail information and official downloadable maps of the area.
All images © 2024 Devlin Stalion.
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