Thanksgiving weekend, 2017, we wanted to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather, so we loaded up the car, rounded up a couple of our kids and one of their friends and headed for the Gorge.

On this video, you’ll see us do the Indian Staircase loop, which begins at Bison Way, at the Gladie Visitor Center. Hike 0.6 miles to the junction with the Sheltowee Trace, and turn left. 0.25 miles or so later, when you hit a grove of conifers, you’ll see a Sheltowee blaze on a skinny tree on your left. To your right, you’ll see an unofficial trail head up the hill. This will be the second unofficial trail you’ll see. Take it up the hill until you get to a rocky chute. Climb the chute, and when you get to a plateau at the bottom of a 1015 foot cliff, go to the left, where you’ll find an easy path back up to the right, looking down on where you were just standing. This is the base of Indian Staircase, and according to legend, Native American people carved out the round hand/foot holds you’ll find pockmarked all the way to the top.

Once we reached the top, we took a trail and went left, passing frog’s head on the way to the Council Chamber, a massive rock house that you shouldn’t miss. From here, we climbed back up to the trail and followed it around the horseshoe ridge until we were on the opposite side of the Indian Staircase and stopped to watch others climb it.

Another thirdofamile or so later, and we reached the Sheltowee Trace and turned left. A quartermile later, we came to the junction with the hidden trail that turns right at a hairpin turn and leads 0.5 miles to Adena Arch.

After Adena Arch, we continued on to Indian Arch, which is about a tenth of a mile from the Adena junction.

From Indian Arch, we took a flight of wooden steps to the bottom of the cliff and followed the Sheltowee Trace under the cliffs we’d just been walking until we reached Bison Way and continued back to the car.

This is a great trail that is a lot of fun to hike. One caution – avoid Indian Staircase in wet or icy weather. This is a manageable hike, but very dangerous.

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Music:
Put Your Hands Together, by Andrew Applepie
http://www.andrewapplepie.com &   / andrewapplepie   Please support at www.patreon.com/andrewapplepie

Downtown Funk, by DJ Quads   / downtownfunk  

Inquisition, by Dyalla Swain: music by Dyalla Swain   / dyallas  

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