Photos

A hiking trail at Clifty Falls State Park/Clifty Canyon Nature Preserve in southern Indiana. This trail currently just goes to a dead end to view Clifty Falls; it was necessary to block off the stairs to the base of the falls and another trail after they fell down the side of the cliff.

In southeastern Indiana lies one of the state's most rugged and photogenic areas. Clifty Falls State Park occupies 1,416 acres west of the historic Ohio River town of Madison. The main attraction is the spectacular, three-mile-long, 300-foot-deep canyon of Clifty Creek, cut into the high bluffs towering above the Ohio River. Most of the canyon lies within the 178-acre Clifty Canyon Nature Preserve. Sixty-foot-high Big Clifty Falls marks the northern end of the canyon. Three other falls, ranging in height from 60 to 83 feet, are found in tributaries. There are 10 hiking trails totaling about 14 miles. The upland east of the canyon contains the main park road, a campground, a nature center and Clifty Inn, which overlooks Madison and the Ohio River. The area's rugged terrain is a product of the ice age. The sand- and gravel-laden glacial meltwater of the Ohio River carved hundreds of feet into the existing bedrock, in the process capturing the Clifty Creek and forming Clifty Falls, which may have initially been some 200 feet high. The canyon's 425-million-year-old shale and limestone rocks are among the oldest exposed bedrock in Indiana and contain abundant marine fossils.