Hickory Ridge Fire Tower
30 minutes deep into the forest of Monroe County, a lookout tower stands tall over all the trees. Every student at Indiana University knows about Monroe Lake. When it gets warm out, many students pile into a car and drive through the twisty tree-lined road. They go swimming, paddle boarding, or even boating. However, few students know the beauty that lies within the forest. Before hitting the Hoosier National Forest entrance, you can take a sharp left turn onto a small dirt road.
Driving almost 30 minutes through a silent eerie forest, a bumpy road, and no end in sight, you finally arrive at a tower. You park your car and step out with nothing but trees surrounding you. Glancing up, the tower stands 110 feet above, with 123 daunting metal steps.
Depending on the time of year, this will either be the most exciting experience or the most terrifying experience. I, personally, was more on the terrifying spectrum. All alone, most students still out of town from Thanksgiving break, I was greeted with a dead forest, only a few orange leaves gripping onto the branches.
As you approach the tower and begin your ascent, the creaking begins. The first foot is placed onto the cold metal step, and as you no longer have weight holding you to the ground, the tower begins to sway. The wind only gets stronger the higher you go, and so does your adrenaline. Halfway up is usually when you start regretting your decision. Don’t give in to the temptation to turn back. This won’t be the last time that feeling arises, but it also will be proven wrong multiple more times.
As you take the final set of stairs, you enter into what has the same vibe as an abandoned room. Graffiti all over the walls, chipped paint and freezing cold air. Finally, you stand up straight and see what all of this was for. The most sublime view of Charles C. Dream Wilderness, and if you look close enough, I bet you can see all those other students at Lake Monroe who have no idea this place even exists.
I didn’t have the pleasure of going during the fall, but if you do, you will be met with a vibrant view of oranges and reds as far as the eye can see. Even with most of the trees dead, I still got an insane view that is engraved in my head. It will definitely remind you that Indiana is actually quite gorgeous. Living in Bloomington, it’s hard to remember that Indiana isn’t a bunch of college towns and cornfields. Although that may be a significant part of this midwestern state, there is much more it has to offer.
After taking hundreds of pictures of both the view and yourself, making sure to document the beauty surrounding you, it will finally be time to begin your descent. As you take the first step down, that unsettling feeling returns, and you regret all of your choices. Gripping onto the railing, you take each of the 123 steps one at a time.
When you finally reconnect with the Earth, the regret feeling goes away once again. Driving back through this forest that you can suddenly see through a different perspective is pure bliss. Returning home, you have a faint reminder that Indiana has a lot of hidden corners that are left to uncover.
