I want to open this review with the statement that what I am about to say brings me no pleasure. The park has done nothing to me. I am a fan of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the work they do. I grew up in the shadow of Fort Benjamin Harrison Army base and have been venturing around the neighboring parks and onto the base since I was a child. When they turned it into a State Park, I was ecstatic and have maintained State Park membership unbroken since.
Suffice it to say, this is a place near and dear to my heart.
So why give it the Third Turd rating?
Honestly that may be a bit harsh…but I would rather that, than give the Solid Second rating and have that view be the motivator for sitting back and letting it continue to slide…because it has been a steep slide over the last couple of years.
Lets start with what they do right. The park workers are always super friendly, they do a remarkable job of keeping it clean, and their efforts to maintain and develop the park in natural ways are herculean.
Which begs the question, what is wrong then?
The short answer is overuse.
The biggest evidence of overuse is the Parks need to fence off access to Fall Creek. People have always waded there, but the creek habitat just cant take hundreds of people wading there every day…and it was getting destroyed. It sucks, but it needed to happen to preserve the creek. Hopefully once it heals we can hike along it again.
But back to discussing the specifics.
This state park is located on the North East corner of Indianapolis. Which puts one of the most densely populated bedroom communities in central Indiana just northwest of it. Fishers. Add in the Towns of Lawrence, McCoordsville, and nothing but houses all the way out to Pendleton…and a lack of other hiking or nature walking opportunities within several miles and you end up with a heavily used park.
So just from that, the park has some special challenges that are a bit tougher than what our other parks deal with.
That is further complicated by special interests. Two very specific ones. Mountain Bikers and Dog owners.
I know I am losing audience here….but hear me out. This is not anti dog at all. This is very specific to the issues with this park. So lets address that first.
The purpose of Indiana Department of Resources State Parks is well defined in their mission statement.
“The mission of Indiana State Parks is to conserve, manage, and interpret our resources while creating memorable experiences for everyone. Excellence in stewardship, recreational diversity, interpretation, service and growth resulting in unique places that people respectfully use, enjoy and cherish.”
When they speak of conserving and managing, they are referring to the natural systems and wildlife of the area. I can tell you from personal experience that they quantity of wildlife in this specific state park has gone down dramatically over the last several years. Previously, it was nothing to see multiple deer and a variety of other wildlife throughout the park. But over the last several years, more and more people are bringing dogs into the park. With a few unleashed exceptions, these are overwhelmingly well behaved and cause no outward issue.
So what is the problem? Simply put dogs are predators. They smell like predators. And its not one or two dogs. There are more people with dogs on the trails than not. Animals avoid areas with heavy predator activity. This adds up to less wildlife in the park…which goes directly against the parks mission statement.
I don’t even object to dogs in State Parks….but the population density in this area is too high for it, and at a minimum, dogs should not be allowed on the hiking trails in Fort Harrison State Park, just based on the damage to wildlife diversity in the woods there.
As a side note, there are as many dog parks as there are city parks in Indianapolis, the State Park doesn’t need to be one too.
Sorry/not sorry.
Next is a subject that enrages me.
Mountain Bikers.
If I were devising a way to cause erosion, damage tree roots, and make a walk in the woods miserable; I would probably designate trails to be used by mountain bikes. They are noisy. They are dangerous (I have had several occasions where I had to abandon the trail quickly on a hillside because of one of these cyclists barreling around a corner and failing to yield to hikers as every sign tells them to do). Most of all, they are tearing up the forest. Just walk the trails and look at the ground. See the mutilated roots. Look at the tire tread digging into the earth and eroding. But don’t look too long, you will get run over if you don’t look up.
Seriously, these guys are a nuisance on the paved trails…but at least there they are not harming the forests that are supposed to be getting protected. When they are in the woods on trails, they are acting against the IDOR State Park mission statement, and destroying the hard work our parks workers put in to preserve what we have.
Frankly it is unconscionable.
That is all from this old man yelling at clouds…but I hope someone considers this before Fort Harrison State Park is just another paved place. It is and has been special. Lets not let overuse destroy it. Lets go the other way and put them on the Blue RibbonTeam.