Brown County State Park

Into lives often filled with taking care of everyone else, Brown County, Indiana, comes like a favorite aunt, the fun one who wants you to be you. This enclave of tiny towns, artists’ studios and wild places reminds you who that person is and nurtures her, for a change. At first, the area just an hour or so south of Indianapolis seems appealing but unremarkable, especially in the first glance down Nashville’s main street. The county’s seat and largest town is tiny, fewer than 1,000 people. Yet it has more than its share of shops, a couple of inns, several restaurants and flowers blooming everywhere. A more deliberate look around reveals the artists working here, as they have been for a century. Their studios tuck in between shops and hide among the green hills and deep hollows.

These backroads, gardens, green spaces and studios offer explorers of all sorts exactly what their spirits need. Here are more than a dozen ways to tap into it.

NATURE: Brown County belongs to its forests rather than the other way around. Indianapolis’ sprawling suburbs halt well before a two-lane road ventures into this sanctuary of hills, meadows and woods that have their own powers to soothe and inspire.

FLOWERS Tiny, white daisies wave along roads, and petunias cascade from pots and planters in Nashville. The Flower and Herb Barn is a maze of blooms and displays that have become a sort of spring mecca. Everyone comes out to see what’s blooming and to get ideas. "It’s supposed to be an experience," owner Mike Nickels says. "Flowers touch something inside all of us...even though we may not even realize it’s there." Margaret and Dick Korthauer, visiting from near Eau Claire, Wisconsin, are toying with the idea of taking a bit of the color home, where it’s still cold. Either way, Margaret says, "We’re here mainly for inspiration." PATHS Trails quickly reach places where people don't seem to belong. A doe and two spindly-legged fawns freeze when they see hikers in Brown County State Park, then leap daintily into the trees. Nearby, a carpet of newly sprouting ferns seems too pretty and delicate to walk on. VISTAS In the morning, mist cloaks the hills and glows in soft light. By midday, the contours sharpen, and ridges march for an improbable distance. This panorama unfolds from just about every ridge. Linger over it at Hesitation Point in Brown County State Park with a picnic spread on a perfectly positioned table. At T.C. Steele State Historic Site, Manager Andrea deTarnowski shows visitors the spot where the founder of the county's artists’ colony stood more than a century ago and decided to settle here. RAIN Late-spring showers pour down, as refreshing as a cold drink on a warm afternoon, washing the air clean and leaving a cool sheen on green leaves. Rain taps the tin roof of the Story Inn, a converted general store that’s really all that’s left of the town of Story (population: 5). At wood tables ringed by mismatched chairs in the dining room, patrons linger over lunch, order coffee and think about dessert or maybe glasses of wine. The rain will pass, so all anyone can do is wait, a gift when there's no schedule to keep.

Related Links: