Ancient Natural Wonders of Southern Indiana 

Thank you! When I worked at Louisville, coworkers would ask me what they, and their families, could do on the weekend: things that were fun and didn’t cost too much. I started off making lists, but video said it better. 210 videos later, still not finished with Indiana. 🙂

So much of youth is wasted on the young! If we could only go back in time!

@@brooklynboiprod come back home, we'll have a potluck

@@mmcunome314 I would love to

@@mmcunome314 At first I read your name as my last name lol

My pleasure, Sherrie! 🙂

His voice is a part of the experience ✨

Roger, thank you (again) for visiting memories from my childhood and showering me new adventures!

And these are just the ones on public property!

Southern Indiana has most of the natural wonders, a totally different landscape from northern Indiana. You can fly into Louisville (SDF), and be on an Indiana cave tour, within an hour! It’s also a treasure trove for silly roadside attractions, perfect for picture scavenger hunts. Northern Indiana has ancient Adena earthworks, and many many museums. Have made four trips to northern Indiana, to catch the highlights, and Amish food! 🙂

It’s a very very cool place. If I’d do some climbing, I’d find a great deal more along the ridge.

Thank-you!

@@leospring6264 thank you Leo!

Thank you, Brinda!

Mammoth cave still has a mummy called “lonesome John”. He’s naturally mummified, the victim of a rock that fell on him. We even have pictures. The big deal was the female that was purposely mummified, and buried sitting up in a stone tomb, inside mammoth. It went to the world’s fair, thousands saw it, pictures were taken. But after it was sent to the Smithsonian, it magically disappeared from the catalog. There’s rumor of a second mummy in mammoth. Squire however, is the only grave in a cave that’s on display today.

I’m looking forward to a recent land sale, by the Nature Conservancy. Apparently, the state now owns a virtually undisturbed piece of land, that has a third natural arch. The Nature Conservancy still owns the huge Arrowhead Arch, which I’ve visited but didn’t include, as it’s technically private property.

For me, it’s changing “some day” dreams to putting a date on the calendar, so I don’t lose it. So many good people send me ideas. I’ll find something interesting on a web search. I immediately do a screen print, type it in a spreadsheet, and then give it a date.

It’s my honor to make the inaccessible, accessible! 🙂

Have been hiking for over 45 years. I hike from mid fall to early spring: it avoids ticks and camouflaged snakes I can’t see. 🙂 I’ve seen pictures from people who’ve hiked O’Bannon in the summer: 10-12 ticks on each sock. Lyme disease is no joke.

My sincere pleasure, Oscar! I know I’ve loved living here and exploring this beautiful place. I do believe it’s changed me for the positive! 🙂

Southern Indiana is a very unique place, way different from the rest of the state. I’ve absolutely loved exploring it!

Thank-you! Some people get stuck in caves, I fall out of them! Two to be exact, at the Bluffs of Beaver Bend. 😂 Up at Black Rock Nature Preserve, along the Wabash, those little high-up caves also have a sketchy path with a deep drop. Buckner is up in Monroe County. I’ve heard of Trap Door, though I can’t remember where it is. I have a friend that’s president of an Indiana grotto, he would know. For a fact, he’s out every weekend, rappelling down and crawling through some pretty nasty places!

Just published one about northern Indiana a few weeks ago, working on additional segments from that trip. Slowing collecting material for central Indiana segments.

@@NocturnalIntellect Thank-you! I’ve filmed so much material, that I could edit for the rest of the year, without going anywhere else! But, I’m looking forward to this great weather that’s coming our way! 🙂

@@AdventureswithRoger that’s great news about what you have available yet to come. I hope you get what you can while you can. All while enjoying the beauty of the great Hoosier state. Hopefully you’ll find the time when the weather turns to produce what you have. Looking forward to it, Roger. Safe travels on your journey.

I have a feeling that fall is going to be beautiful and early!

Thank you, Barbara!

My favorite waterfall in Indiana! I omitted Cataract, McCormicks Creek, and Anderson Falls, as they aren’t deep southern Indiana. All three are amazing though!

Our parents used to take us to Southern Indiana all the time, and I thought it was the best place on earth! When I got the chance to move here, I took it and haven’t been sorry. 🙂

The regular big Wyandotte Cave tour is good enough for me. I’ve heard that if you’re claustrophobic, you cannot do the wild tour. Something about crawling a very long distance with only about 21 inches clearance. It’s a big nope for me. 🙂 However, it has either the largest or one of the largest columns in North America: the pillar of the constitution. I’ve seen pictures, it looks pretty epic! I don’t have any nicknames. In fact, most people don’t even know I’m a RU-vidr, family included! Every great once in a while, I’ll run into somebody that watches the channel, while I’m making a film. When they figure out who I am, they treat me like a celebrity. It’s always very humbling, I’m just a guy with a camera. 🙂

@@AdventureswithRoger Oh hell I didn't think about it being tube - like and going a long way so you make a great point, that'll be a big nope for me too! lol. I went through an old rr tunnel in Scott county TN and it's very short, you can plainly see everything on the other side, but the thought of being inside a place that could collapse any moment and not being able to make it to either end? Yeah I freaked out just a little and wouldn't let my kids go through it lol, and we were riding in our razor 😂 could have zipped through it quickly but my mind had already worked it's magic of paranoia. My poor kids got cheated out of a few things that were really fun and pretty safe. I was a wild child and was raised in Cincinnati, where all my kids were raised down here in TN so I was scared of almost everything moving here lol. I think I was letting my ars do the talking when I said I'd go through that inside a cave bc my mouth knows better 😉😂🙏✌️

For many years, I wanted to see the pillar of the constitution, considering it was absolutely huge and majestic. When I visited over two decades ago, I expected to see it, not realizing it was not on the regular tour. I talked to people about where it was, and they told me about the very long crawl. Yep, a picture will do. 😂 I was telling that story to the Indiana Caverns Director of operations. He told me he’d been in caves where there was only about 3 inches of air above water! “I have two words for you: Floyd Collins”.

@@AdventureswithRoger Right, yeah f*ck that! Watery grave, no thanks! Lol. I don't care what is on the other side of that I will take your word for how cool it is. I've often wondered, how ppl who map caves prepare mentally before going in? I mean most ppl probably don't think about such things before going to bed in fear of having a nightmare so just what in God's name goes through their minds that says hey pal let's go in a dark slippery place and see what is down there? Takes more guts than well I will leave it at that lol. Seriously though, I admire those who are not chicken like myself and bring out the beautiful pics, and amazing maps and the stories of how awesome a place is. I'll leave it all to the pro's.

My pleasure, Nancee!

Thank-you, Gina! Good to see you in the comment section again! 🙂

@@AdventureswithRoger I get excited to see you have a posted another awesome video. I share em with my kids ☺️

I’ll bet Whiskey Run road is named after him!

@@AdventureswithRoger It is named after him. My family lived there.

My pleasure, Rachel! Both sides of Yellow Birch Ravine are compelling, a truly wonderful surprise!

I get similar comments all the time, but the state has yet to call! 😂

@@AdventureswithRoger You just need to contact them!! #GOALS

Lots to see and do!

I frequently cross over to Kentucky. The entire region is awesome!

@@brandonjackson1434 Bringing Southern Indiana to the world, one video at a time!

@@AdventureswithRoger and doing a great job in my teens and twenties I spent a lot of time in caves mostly self guided wild privately owned caves I visited hundreds of different caves about all of the vertical caves, I enjoyed rope work and caving,the deepest is gory hole at 147' deep with a repel in a waterfall anyway you bring the best Indiana had to offer

My favorite thing about Southern Indiana: no matter what kind of day it is, I’m no more than 20 to 30 minutes from the river and solitude. After the river passes the big city of Louisville, It’s pretty quiet, all the way to Mount Vernon, Indiana. I never got that when I lived south of Indianapolis.

I remember doing trail 4 to Hoffman Falls, with cousins, and thinking it was great. Did not give a second thought about difficulty. I later took a date there, and for some reason, she thought it was tough! 😂 It took me by surprise at the time, but I bet it wouldn’t be so easy today, 2 decades later!

My folks grew up in Lawrence County. Even though we lived near Indianapolis, they took us to southern Indiana all the time, showing us the great places they found in their youth. It was a precious gift, that I appreciate more today! 🙂

My pleasure!

Thank-you!

Very cool place, that kind’ve sounded made-up until I saw it for myself!

Thank you!

Yellow Birch Ravine surprised me. It was about 17 minutes from parking lot to a large, natural arch. Hemlock Cliffs didn’t take long to get to the bottom, but it was sketchy getting down! Most of the trail was pretty flat, until the way back up to the parking area.

@@AdventureswithRoger SOme of it can be sketchy. And let me tell you, if the sign says - No hikers beyond this point", they left out the word "live". There are no live hikers beyond that point! What was interesting to me is that I didn't know a lot of those had a name. The group I was with would just hike and hike and hike and hike wherever we were, so we would run into that stuff, and yes, it is very very cool.

Harrison, Crawford and Perry counties just keep on giving!

@@CJ-qg7de heard some stories. Heard more Bigfoot tales than anything.

@@AdventureswithRoger if you noticed the big old concrete slabs down at the bottom of the valley and the creepy old door leading into the hill on the other side of the stream, that's from them so I've heard! A friend of mine from high-school's mother told me about it, apparently they were more of a nuisance than anything, nothing crazy, they were just very pious. I believe this was in the 80s

INDIANA SHOWCAVE PRICES Marengo Crystal Palace tour: $21.95 Marengo Dripstone tour: $24.95 (There’s a discount for doing both tours: $30.95 for both) Indiana Caverns tour: $23.00 Squire Boone Caverns tour: $25.00 Little Wyandotte Cave tour: $8.00 Big Wyandotte Cave tour: $18.00 Upper Twin Cave tour: $3 plus Spring mill park admission. Donaldson Cave (dry side): free with Spring Mill park admission Bluespring Caverns Park tour: $22.00 All these have discounts for seniors, children, groups, and often military personnel, and their families

I love your dark humor

I’m hoping to bring Wyandotte as much publicity as I can, so it can happen once again. Funds are tight for the state, but this is a passion project for me, and only costs my time. Wyandotte and I go way back. I remember when there was a large visitor center, where the small building is now, and how excited we were to see big Wyandotte, as a family. Think it was in the mid 1970’s. I later went back with a friend of mine, around 1997, who hit every low rock with his head! Lots of great memories. I can still hear him hit those rocks! 😂 With the white nose syndrome, I wasn’t sure any tour was ever going to happen. When they finally did open, and I saw how it was neither marketed or funded for expansion, I knew I wanted to do something. I spoke to the Director, told him I wanted to film the two regular tours, and include them in various segments on RU-vid. I think I’ve used footage in at least five separate films! Many people told me that, before my RU-vid segments, they didn’t even know Wyandotte cave existed. It definitely needed some marketing. Hopefully the word of its greatness keeps making the rounds, and the tours fund bigger things!

Depends on your mobility and time constraints. Most of these could be knocked out in 3 days, 5 days would be better.

I was telling someone I could stop filming today, and edit for the rest of the year! But I would like to get back to at least one video a week. 🙂

Geologists aren’t really sure how it was formed. They assume it had something to do with massive amounts of water, but carving can’t be ruled out. Native people seemed to give it a lot of reverence.

Behind-the-scenes, I’ve already filmed in Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, and Florida. Hoping to get to Michigan before it gets too cold! The plan is to document Indiana’s major tourist spots before I move on to other states. 🙂

@@AdventureswithRoger sweet! Lookin forward to it

It started with elementary school. Then middle school, high school, college biology. But finding tiny fossils in my backyard, including seashells: very cool. Fossils are all over southern Indiana.

Cannot remember to save my life, and I couldn’t find it online! My friend’s grandmother gave her a dresser, also made of some now extinct tree, it might be the same type. I can’t remember that one either. 😂

I haven’t. I hiked Clifty’s trail 4 and didn’t think it was that bad at the time, despite the states “most rugged trail” designation. Several decades later, I did trail 3 at Charleston State Park, and that one made me question my choices. 😂 I imagine that has something to do with age and cheeseburgers, but I now gage all trail difficulty, by how it compares to Rose Islands trail 3. 🙂

I don’t know any relatives in Northwest Indiana, but there’s a 99.9% chance we’re related.

@@AdventureswithRoger We live SE of Indy and were planning to do a trip this fall. I think you may have just solved where we are going. Any recommendations on a place to stay for a few days?

@@TheCritterWindow Depends on what you’re interested in. If you’re into caves, hiking, and old state history, the hotels near the highway at Corydon are perfect. Staying there, you’re close to four show caves and the old territory capital tour. You’re only about an hour from Santa Claus, Indiana, home of the Holiday World theme park, the Candy Castle, historic post office and Museum, and a fabulous Christmas store! Just down the road from there is the Lincoln boyhood home memorial, museum, and village, including his mother’s grave. Corydon is usually where I start, as all the restaurants and conveniences are there. Some people drive down to the river, and gamble at the casino, or even stay there (Elizabeth, IN), but there is nothing around the casino, it’s pretty much by itself. Once you leave Corydon and head west on I-64, you won’t see another fast food place for about an hour, except for the Loves Truck Stop Hardee’s at Leavenworth! If you’re planning to do sightseeing around Shoals, Indiana, the West Baden / French lick area is the place to stay. Lots of amenities, fast food, upscale restaurants, 6 hotels, a casino, live shows, waterpark, indoor go karts, miniature golf, and only about 30 minutes to Shoals (Jug Rock, Bluffs of Beaver Bend, House Rock). Here’s a guide to Corydon: HIDDEN WORLDS: Exploring Corydon and Harrison County Indiana ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-C_PxFgaexw8.html

@@AdventureswithRoger Wow thanks for the info. I think the caves and trails will be what we do. Thanks

Corydon’s your place then! I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been to old Corydon, a few miles down from the highway. 🙂

I once met somebody that watched my videos, and wanted to tag along. Seemed harmless enough. I won’t do that again, lessons learned! 😂

@AdventureswithRoger oh, that's awful. I'm okd school indiana and never think of those things

I started a project about my parents old high school, which is now closed. I had real high hopes for it, lots of background information, old pictures, the gym is even virtually intact from the 1940’s! I got the name of the owner and asked if I could just get in the gym, to take some video. Apparently, he’d covered up the floor with large tarps, and didn’t want to remove them. I even offered to remove them and put them back, but he was not interested. It’s sad because that was a real heartfelt project I would’ve loved to have done. I’ve started work on another project, concerning the old rail lines in Indiana. I filmed a bunch of train museums, depots, old trains, still a lot of work to do. 🙂

Or, don’t do stupid stuff. 😉

I had it in the original cut, with mention of an old legend. I ended-up not using it, as the footage was not that great: I needed the sun behind me, instead of in front. To correct it meant another week and a 3 Hour drive for a better segment.

@@AdventureswithRoger Thanks! Lot of interesting things are said to have happened there, including being the earliest plat in the county, a town of about 1200 at some point, a large mill on the flat rock below the falls (the post holes are still very plain to see), some mysterious plague around 1820, and a very interesting graveyard on the hill above the old town. The falls are not always spectacular as they are not very high (5') and are easily subsumed by flood stage, but when the river is normal or low they are quite spectacular, having the entire river flow over them and being over 400' wide. The noise alone is worth the trip. Hope you can include it in something in the future.

I think it’s where an ice glacier stopped

I’ve heard of Merom, but I can’t remember the details! Being along the Wabash, I bet the fall colors are wonderful!

No. Once thought about doing a tour business, but have abandoned the idea.

My apologies Roger ! I was just curious about the double cave opening ? I believe you and i discussed this , maybe 2 years ago .

RU-vid filters comments, and will often send them to a “held for review” folder. Sometimes it makes sense, people saying crazy things they shouldn’t. Sometimes people post a comment, edit it, and for some reason, it also grabs the comment for a view. I’ve stopped guessing! Are you talking about Hamer cave?

@@AdventureswithRoger it had some connection to the Underground Railroad too !

Come over during their mating season. They will definitely go after you.