Indiana Travel

A state located in the mid-west, Indiana has a small coast on the great lakes and is known mostly for it's large cities such as the capital Indianapolis. I have so far just visited the capital and some natural areas in the south. I've got plenty left to see, but Indiana has turned out to be another one of those places where I didn't know what to expect but instead left impressed with all the activities and natural beauty.

Indiana Links
	Indianapolis is the state's largest city, and the second largest capital city in America after Phoenix Arizona. After Washington DC, the city is second in the nation for having the most memorials and statues. Above is the capitol building in the downtown part of the city, with an outdoor walkway that was part of another government building.

	Above are two famous areas of Indianapolis, the Memorial Circle on the left and the city itself taken from the white river state park.

In the 1830s, the government began to build a canal system throughout the state in order to help transfer goods to different cities. After the canal system was just getting started in Indianapolis, it went bankrupt and was abandoned. Today, the canal system remains and has now been transformed into a cultural center in the middle of the city. Several of Indianapolis's best museums and restaurants are built along the canal which can be explored by foot or even by small boat taxis. Above are two photos from the canal at night.

Downtown Indianapolis is lined up with plenty of restaurants and attractions. The Artsgarden on the left is built by skywalks that connect it to the surrounding hotels and mall complex and stands seven stories tall. On the right is the Rock Bottom restaurant on Indianapolis.

These two photos were taken around the Soldiers & Sailors Monument. There are several horse drawn carriages to get you from place to place or to take a tour of the city. On the right is an interesting building that set up lights in their windows to make the US flag.

The illuminated sidewalk on the left was unfortunately short, but fun to walk through since there the lights give off such strong colors. On the right is some graffiti from outside the downtown area. I'm sure Indianapolis has some ghetto places but I didn't come across any on this trip.

This building above is the Scottish Rite Cathedral, the most popular historic structure in Indianapolis. Its design included making all measurements divisible by 3, and some by 33 due to the total number of degrees a member of the Scottish Rite can achieve.

The Indianapolis 500 is one of the most famous auto races in the world, and has been going on since 1909. The racing event takes place within the city at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway track, which has a capacity for over a quarter of a million people. When I was in Indianapolis there wasn't a race going on, so I did the next best thing which was to visit their museum. Over 50 years old, the Indianapolis's Motor Speedway Hall of Fame museum is one of the most famous in the state. The museum is mostly dedicated to the Indianapolis 500 race which is considered one of the oldest and most important motor races in the world, and has been going on since 1911. Above are some examples of the cars within the museum, the one on the upper left was the actual car that won the 2005 brickyard 400 race. This race was especially important to the city since it was won by a local, for the first time in over 50 years. On the right is one of the main exhibits, but I wasn't able to read the description cause of all the kids from the field trip.
The surrounding photos are all from Crown Hill Cemetery built on Indianapolis' highest point. This is actually the third largest cemetery in the United States and has almost 200,000 people buried here. It was first built in 1864 to provide a burial place for soldiers fighting the civil war, but now is the final resting places for several famous Americans including US president Benjamin Harrison.


On my way south from Indianapolis, I drove through the small town of Madison. It's built right along the Ohio River along the border of Kentucky and has only 12,000 people in it. Madison does have a very unique event that takes place in the summer though. The nearly 100 year old sport of hydro racing has taken place in the Ohio River in late summer, officially since 1929.

There are several other places left for me to explore in Indiana. This trip just focused on Indiana and some outdoor hiking I did later. Above are two pictures of the state's countryside. Some honeysuckles on the right and some type of crop grown throughout Indiana on the left./

The surrounding areas of Madison are rural and mountainous with some thick forests and exposed ridges. The two photos above are from the outskirts of Madison, with a sharp turn in a road on the left and a bright green forest because of the early Spring leaves.
In 1920, citizens of Madison gave up some surrounding land to the state and created Clifty Falls park. This park has some of the most beautiful scenery I've seen east of the Mississippi river. There are four major waterfalls in the park and they measure between 60 and 83 feet. These two photos show the 60 foot Big Clifty falls, but because of the vegetation I couldn't get a shot of the entire vertical drop.

Within the park, you'll come across several rock walls that are about 6 feet in height and line the trail, above are two examples.


	Aside from the waterfalls, there are several rock formations that also give some great scenery. On the left is a large cliff with some large trees growing just over the ledge. On the right is a large rock right off the trail.

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Indiana Travel

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