As always, when checking into the RV park, I had picked up several brochures of attractions in the Indianapolis area. One of them had a picture of a beautiful waterfall, but no indication of its name or location. A quick Google for "waterfalls near Indianapolis" turned up Cataract Falls, complete with directions. After visiting Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the morning and having a spot of lunch, I headed for Cataract about twenty miles outside town.
Once off the Interstate, I began to pass beautiful fall foliage and stopped occasionally to take a few pictures.
When I arrived at Upper Cataract Falls, I could see the water level wasn't nearly as high as in the brochure photo. Still, it was a lovely scene and I enjoyed walking around the park, checking out different viewpoints. There are actually two separate falls at this location.
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| First Upper Cataract Falls |
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| Second Upper Cataract Falls |
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| Mill Creek |
The Cataract Covered Bridge spans Mill Creek near Upper Falls. Built in 1876, this bridge was designed with a new type of truss developed by Robert Smith of Ohio. His design could be constructed off-site at a factory, disassembled and shipped to its location for re-assembly. An earlier bridge here was destroyed by a flood, as were all bridges in the county except one based on the new design. As a result, all new bridges in the area were specified to use the new Smith Truss.
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| Cataract Covered Bridge |
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| Road To Lower Falls |
Lower Cataract Falls is only about 15 feet high, compared to 30 feet at Upper Cataract Falls.
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| Lower Cataract Falls |
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| Picnic Area |
On the drive back to Indianapolis, I explored a couple back roads that had some colorful trees.
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