Lick Creek Trail: A Lepidopterist's Dream

[GonzoJohn]

Lick Creek Trail, Hoosier National Forest

On Saturday, June 6th, I picked the Lick Creek Trail from the list on the HNF web site mainly for being the right length. At just under 8 miles, Lick Creek is long enough for a full afternoon and offers a variety of terrain and habitat. On this particular day, it also provided me with the widest variety of butterfly species that I can ever remember spotting in one day on any trail in Kentuckiana. In particular, my all time favorite butterfly to photograph, the Great Spangled Fritillary was in abundance. In fact, this normally hard to find species in Kentucky was practically everywhere I looked on the Lick Creek trail in Indiana.

Great Spangled Fritillaries

To get to the Lick Creek trailhead, I drove I-64 over the Sherman Minton bridge to the Paoli exit on Indiana 150. I then drove to Paoli on 150 and took Indiana 37 South after proceeding through the Paoli town square. Once on 37 South, continue for just over 5 miles and look for the Lick Creek HNF trail signs. It was easy to find and took a little over an hour before I pulled into the trailhead parking lot to what has become for me, a not-so-welcome sight; hitching posts

Several hitching posts for horses are included in the parking area at Lick Creek, since it is another “multi-use” trail in HNF. Of the trails I've explored in HNF, all of the multi-use trails include lots of hoof print bogs. These are sections of the trail anywhere from a few feet up to 100 yard lengths that are perpetually muddy thanks to horse traffic. The Lick Creek trail is no exception.

Hoof print bog

Like several other trails in HNF, the Lick Creek trail consists of a spur trail from the main parking area to a loop that returns to the spur trail. There is also an alternate parking area with a spur at the end of Grease Gravy Rd (though I didn't hike that section, but I had to mention the name of the road.)

Most of Lick Creek is fairly flat. There were no large hills to speak of. The only real challenge was to try and keep your feet reasonably dry through the many hoof print bogs. This will entail a lot of skirting the edge of the trail, so be aware of ticks. They are still plentiful in HNF and the Lick Creek trail is no exception.

Once I arrived at the loop section of the trail, I hiked counter clockwise taking a right and continuing along the trail. After about a half mile, you'll run into a large area of downed trees blocking the trail at the mouth of what appears to be a stream bed. The stream bed looks enough like trail to confuse any hiker, so just look for the blue diamond trail markers. You'll also find hoof print trails around the larger downed tree areas, so look for these as well.

The Lick Creek trail crosses a natural gas line cut twice along the loop and it is here where you will find a multitude of butterflies. At one point, I was merely standing still watching one set of butterflies near the trail when 2 Great Spangled Fritillaries landed on my leg. If butterflies are what you are looking for, I cannot recommend the Lick Creek trail enough. In my almost 4 hour hike, I spotted several species of fritillaries and swallowtails (Including the largest Tiger Swallowtail I've ever seen) as well as Mourning Cloaks, Question Marks and many more.

Great Spangled Fritillary

Natural gas cut

Tiger Swallowtail

In addition to butterflies, I also spotted fire pink wildflowers along the trail, which was unusual since most fire pinks disappeared in the area at about the end of April or earlier.

Fire Pinks

Overall, Lick Creek is a great trail for any type of hiker and especially good for photography. If the trail was not in regular use by horses, I would probably make it a regular stop. Thanks to few lengthy hills, the nearly 8 mile trail is a challenge only for hot weather and length. Take plenty of water and you should have a great time.

To view all of the pictures I took along my hike, check out the photo album Lick Creek .