Brown County State Park

Becca & Andrew
Aug 6
3 min read

We headed an hour south of Indianapolis to Nashville, Indiana to camp for a long 4 day weekend at Brown County State Park and explore the surrounding area for Becca's birthday!

Keep scrolling for pics and descriptions of our adventures! Links at the bottom to all the fun things we did!

Hesitation Point at Brown County State Park — ***The view from Hesitation Point in Brown County State Park.*** Nicknamed the “Little Smokies” because of the area’s resemblance to the Great Smoky Mountains, Brown County encompasses nearly 16,000 acres of rugged hills, ridges, and fog-shrouded ravines. Glaciers from the most recent ice ages stopped short of the “hills o’ Brown,” but their meltwaters helped create the narrow ridges, steep slopes, and deep gullies of Brown County State Park. Indiana’s largest park is a traditional fall color hot spot, with nearly 20 miles of tree-lined roads and many scenic vistas overlooking miles of uninterrupted forestland.

On our first full day we stopped at Brown County State Park's saddle barn and did an hour-long horseback ride through the park (Sorry... we don't have any pictures. photography wasn't allowed). It was an interesting adventure because Becca's horse kept attracting horseflies and they kept landing on her legs. Becca would smack her leg to try and kill the horseflies which would make her horse take off! We really wish we had video of this! Becca did get a nasty horsefly bite on her leg. Andrew's horse definitely marched to her own drummer. The largest and oldest horse available... She would stop, snack on weeds and give dirty looks when kicked to keep moving. She didn't like getting her feet muddy and would create her own off-trail path to keep up with the group despite hard pulls on the reins! Overall it was a beautiful and fun ride.

We then rode our ebikes into downtown Nashville, Indiana. It was our longest ride yet!

Aventon ebike route and stats — *Our ebike route and stats.*

Nashville is an "artist colony" filled with shops, restaurants, wineries and breweries. We walked the entire village stopping first to try a wine flight at Country Heritage Winery.

We continued strolling through the different side streets, stopping in shops. Becca found a really cute outfit and we stopped for a snack at The Ferguson House Beer Garden. We enjoyed a couple brewskies and some crab dip and chips!

We continued on and did a little brewery hopping, stopping for a drink at Moontown Brewing Company. Their beer was tasty and they have TACOS! We then moved on to Big Woods Pizza so we could Quaff On! We're big fans of the Six Foot Tall Strawberry Blonde and Busted Knuckle PB! After that, we found ourselves back at The Ferguson House Beer Garden because the food was previously really good and they had live music! The husband and wife duo was absolutely fantastic playing covers and original songs. We both had burgers which were decently delicious.

We rode our bikes back to the campground for some much needed rest! We woke up the next day, made our breakfast burritos on the Blackstone and set out to explore the park. We did our "nosey neighbor bike ride" through the different campgrounds to check out everyone's setups. There are 4 different campground areas: Buffalo Ridge, Raccoon Ridge, Taylor Ridge and The Horsemen's Camp. We stayed in Buffalo Ridge (Site #44). It was open and sunny. Raccoon Ridge was aimed more for tent campers and the Horsemen's Camp was closed due to recent heavy storm damage. Taylor Ridge though... THAT is the spot for our next trip! Beautiful, wooded and spacious sites with plenty of opportunities for hammocks!

We then stopped by the nature center and got to see a Timber Rattlesnake! There are signs all over the campground to be on the lookout for rattlesnakes as they are often spotted by campers!

Becca started not feeling well on Saturday so our outward adventures ended there. We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing around the campfire and taking it easy. We did travel to the Abe Martin Lodge on our bikes to eat dinner in the lodge's restaurant. It was a typical state park lodge restaurant with a dinner buffet.

Coffees and a campfire — *Coffee with a campfire!*

On Sunday morning we packed up early and headed through Columbus, Indiana on our way home. We stumbled across Upland Brewing in Columbus which is housed in the city's old train station on the river. This place was amazing! We shared a breakfast pizza and some wings and everything was spot on! We sat on the patio facing the river and really enjoyed this place! Highly recommend checking this place out if you're ever traveling on I65 near Columbus. It's just 10 minutes off the highway.