The two final parkis I hiked in over July 4th weekend were Mounds State Park and Summit Lake State Park. Mounds State Park has an interesting history. According to Wikipedia, Mounds State Park is a state park near Anderson, Madison County, Indiana featuring Native American heritage, and ten ceremonial mounds built by the prehistoric Adena culture indigenous peoples of eastern North America, and also used centuries later by Hopewell culture inhabitants. I didn't get any pictures of these because I didn't think it would translate well to my phone camera, but here is a photo of a trail I hiked:
You can read more about Mounds State Park here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mounds_State_Park.
Next stop was Summit Lake State Park. According to Wikipedia: Summit Lake State Park is a park located near New Castle, Indiana in east-central Indiana. Summit Lake became Indiana's 19th state park in 1988. The park covers 2,680 acres (11 km2), including an 800-acre (3.2 km2) lake.
The park is a mix of woodlands, old fields, wetlands, and prairie restoration areas which provide a wide range of flora and fauna. More than 100 species of birds reside in the park, and the area is popular among photographers and bird watchers. Hiking trails offer good views of the lake. Zeigler Woods Nature Preserve, at the southwest corner of the park, is Henry County's only dedicated nature preserve.
Like Shakamak, this park looked like it had a manmade lake on it and felt more like a recreation area than a park to me. A good friend went with me. We had a picnic lunch after Mounds State Park hiking, and then set off on a trail that went through a little prairie with lots of wildflowers. Boy was it hot!! We tried to stay in the shade as much as possible.
I wasn't very impressed by this park. Maybe it would have been more interesting if we had kayaked, or were there early enough to catch some birdwatching.
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