Born2Roam

Fort Benjamin Harrison State Park, Indianapolis The Quick Click pages will scroll automatically or you can click any tab to keep that page open. Numbers on the tabs refer to our Ratings, which are explained on the Tips page. Summary Amid residential and commercial development, Ft. Harrison State Park is the centerpiece in this example of how communities can execute adaptive reuse successfully. Location 5753 Glenn Road, Indianapolis, IN 46216; northeastern suburban Indy near 56th Street and Post Road, almost at the geographical center of Indiana. Google Map to the park entrance Maps and Elevation Profiles The Schoen Creek MTB trail can be found on our Garmin page but did not upload to our RideWithGPS page. The Camp Glen trail is on these pages: Garmin and RideWithGPS. Phone For the park office it’s 317-591-0904. Timing There is no bad time to visit, but... Winters can be cold but when there’s snow, the sledding hill is open. Summers can be hot and humid but it’s always cooler on the trails. Spring has damp and chilly periods but the wildflowers are beautiful then. Autumn is by far the most appealing time with warm, dry days, cool nights, and an abundance of colorful leaves from late September to late October but that’s when the tourist traffic peaks. Where to Stay Not much in the vicinity near the park but the park itself has several options. The only one we’ve stayed at is the Main Lodge, which is on Post Road just south of the park entrance. It was one of the most comfortable rooms we’ve ever had anywhere (pictured). We also had a family reunion where several guests shared one of the park’s 3- bedroom Officer’s Homes. We stayed with our son and his family but did nose around the guest house. It was large, comfortable, and worked well for our purposes with a full kitchen and several spacious rooms for dining and visiting. In general the facilities are old and look it. They have the feel of homes from the 1950s. If you can’t remember that time, staying here is a good way to nestle into post-War America. If you do remember the ‘50s, welcome home. Where to Eat The Garrison is your best bet. It’s part of the park. When we’ve eaten there we’ve found the food to be adequate but not awesome. We’ve not been there for a while, though, and things may have moved toward awesomeness. Otherwise there’s a selection of chains just outside the park, including Panera Bread, Culver’s, IHOP, and Quizno’s. There’s also a sports bar or two and at least one each pizza and Mexican restaurant. Ft. Ben, as we knew it, has been part of our context for decades. Rich went there regularly in the 1970s to attend meetings of the Cold Nickel group. As you might expect, there’s a story behind that but it’s a story he shares only in person; ask him about it next time you see him. Julie’s sister’s husband worked at the Army Finance Center at Ft. Ben for years; it was the position from which he eventually retired. When the Fort closed in 1996 at the directive of the Base Realignment and Closure commission, we were already living in Madison and didn’t stay attentive to what took place. And what took place was an amazing redevelopment that blended commercial, residential, and recreational opportunities into one large area. Many of the existing buildings were repurposed as commercial rentals; many were sold as individual family homes. New homes were built that fit right in with the architecture of the older structures. It’s an effort that remains ongoing and a success that continues to grow. One of the key developments was the setting aside of 1,700 acres to create Fort Benjamin Harrison State Park. That sounds like a lot of land but by the time you cull out a quarter of the area for a golf course there’s not a lot left to work with. The Department of Natural Resources did a good job of protecting the interests of a wide range of users, and they are to be applauded for allowing mountain bike trail development here despite stiff opposition from some other groups. Equally worthy of recognition is the Hoosier Mountain Bike Association. Long proven capable of designing, building, and maintaining great trails, HMBA honed their political and organizational skills while addressing the concerns of their opponents. The MTB trails aren’t long or complex and there certainly is not enough MTB mileage here to make this a destination. However, the trails are exceedingly well-designed. Crossings of intermittent streams are well-armored. Crib walls are solidly constructed of native rock. Both trails are designated for one-way riding going  counterclockwise. The Schoen Creek trail is a perfect intermediate-level trail. While there are no really challenging features, the entire trail is exciting and fun to ride. The layout gives the sense that the trail is more difficult to ride than it actually is; in reality it flows very well. The scenery is enjoyable. The Camp Glen trail is a perfect beginner’s trail in that it has all the elements of a more advanced trail but in smaller scale. Smaller bridges. Smaller dips. Smaller rock gardens. Rich has long touted the beginner’s trail at Monte Sano State Park in Huntsville, Alabama as the best beginner’s trail he’s seen, and he always took attendees of the Big Ring Adventure Team’s MTB 101 classes to Brum Woods in Batesville, Indiana, for their first taste of authentic singletrack. Both sites have dropped a notch; Camp Glen now rules as his Number One pick for beginners. There are lots of metro-area parks with better mountain bike trails. South Mountain Park in Phoenix, Oak Mountain State Park in Birmingham, Alabama, and Lebanon Hills in the Twin Cities come to mind. There are parks with better dining options, such as Natural Bridge State Park in Kentucky and DeSoto State Park in Alabama. (More info on Natural Bridge in our Red River Gorge review and our review of DeSoto is here.) In fact you could pick any single feature of Ft. Ben and find parks that do it better. But you’d be hard-pressed to find any park that does as good a job of meeting the needs of multiple user groups as well in as little area, and none that did so by repurposing a former military installation. Let us know what you think. Send us an e-mail (e-mail addresses are on the Contact page) or post your comments on our Facebook page. 1. Delaware Lake offers fishing. 2. The Garrison includes a restaurant. 3. The State Park Inn has large, comfortable rooms. 4. Schoen Creek trail has great flow. 5. One of several bridges on the Schoen Creek trail. 6. Like all the features on the Camp Glen trail, the bridges are smaller than those on Schoen Creek.

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