Trails closed by flood waters on central Indiana’s White River

Discover White River Rewards Pass is a delightful  program that allows you to explore 37 different parks along White River in central Indiana. We went to 3 of the parks yesterday, following the directions on the sie.

Closed to hikers

Two of the parks were suffering from the current flood stage waters. Town Run Park on 96h Street had open gates to the parking, shelter and trail heads. However, all of trail head gates were closed off to hikers.

Unique playground

Shelter, river in background

Walkway is a bit damp for use

River Heritage Park on the edge of Carmel’s White River is a wonderful park complete with all the latest playground equipment. Several of the concrete walkways were under water due to the flooding of White River.

White River flooding

Similar to the Indy Craft Pass for local breweries, distilleries and wineries, the Discover White River Pass offers exclusive real-world rewards like stickers, shirts, and on-water experiences by visiting dozens of parks and attractions.

 

 

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Indiana prepares for the total solar eclipse

Central Indiana is fortunate to be directly on the route of the long awaited total solar eclipse. Small town Shelbyville is pulling out all the stops in preparation for this exciting event.

On the town square

Announcing the eclipse

Downtown store front decorations

Statewide excitement about the eclipse

Shelbyville is directly in the perfect viewing path of the eclipse. Hopefully the skies will be clear on April 8th. If not, you will have to wait until 2044 for the next eclipse viewing!

Maple tree whirligigs

Maple seeds beginning to develop

It won’t be long until there will be hundreds (if not thousands) of those twirling, spinning  maple tree seeds flying to Earth. The technical term for this winged seed is samara, but you probably refer to them as helicopters or whirligigs.

 

 

Turning Texas trees into Texas art

There are some impressive trees along the banks of Cypress Creek in Wimberley Texas that we saw during our trip there a few days ago. Some very talented people have turned some tree trunks into quite remarkable carvings in a popular picnic area just behind one of the buildings housing restaurants and shops.

Quite the signature…

Now that’s a stare!

Pointing skyward..

For UT Longhorn football fans

By the creek bank

It is impressive to see that a chainsaw was utilized to create such detailed works of art like these.

 

Lake Travis is only 35% full

This photo was taken today from a road to a Hudson Bend marina. the water level is very low…

Lake Travis is a huge lake in the Hill Country northwest of Austin, Texas. It normally has 29.5 square miles of water. That is when normal precipitation falls on the Colorado River basin areas. The whole world has seen lots of area under drought conditions. The Colorado basin and Central Texas is no exception.

That boater has to watch for shallow water not normally there!

As of today, 10/20/2023 Lake Travis Mean Water Level was 627.30 above sea level. One year ago today it was 640.76. Thus in one year the Mean Water Level has dropped 13.46 feet. Another parameter measured daily is the total surface area in acres of the lake. Today the Lake Travis surface area was 8,799 acres. Last year, same date, it was 10,746 acres. Nearly 2000 acres less one year later. Seeing the low level of the water today was quite a shock.