9/29/2013

Clifty Falls State Park, Indiana

Clifty Falls State Park, Indiana

Clifty Falls park was developed around several water falls in a gorge that Clifty creek cuts as it descends into the Ohio River near Madison. This otherwise beautiful natural setting is jarringly juxtaposed with a massive coal burning power plant on the river bank below the park. Incredibly, a resort inn and restaurant have been built on the bluff only a few hundred feet from the smoke stacks of the plant. A room with a view of the smoke stacks costs $175 per night. The place was packed when I passed through in the summer of 2013. An inn was originally built on the site in 1924. It was demolished in 1964 to make way for a more modern inn with an indoor pool. The inn built in 1964 was destroyed by a tornado in 1974 and replaced with the one pictured here. There is a fine dining (Midwestern style) restaurant in the inn where you can eat steak and potatoes and look at the smoke stacks. I had fun photographing the river from an overlook in the light made slightly weird by all the smoke. At times the wind was blowing the thick choking smoke from the plant directly towards me. The park's campground is over-staffed and over-developed but otherwise very nice and safely away from the smoke stacks. There is a $7 entrance fee to drive into the park.

 

Clifty Falls State Park, Indiana

Clifty Falls State Park, Indiana

Clifty Falls State Park, Indiana

Clifty Falls State Park, Indiana

Clifty Falls State Park, Indiana

Clifty Falls State Park, Indiana

Clifty Falls State Park, Indiana

 

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