This hike was not in my backyard but it might as well have been. I had spent so much time at Big Bone State Park as a kid and teen it is almost that familiar to me. Ironically, despite it only being 20 miles from our home, we had only been here a couple of times as adults or parents – perhaps it was the allure of new destinations.
My original thought was that it would be fun to check in on the Bison herd that is housed there, and of course the healthy population of White Oaks that always look so majestic in the winter. And White Oaks just happen to be associated with woodpeckers and nuthatches, some of my favorite birds to observe.
Another plus was the trail, much of it paved or graveled, would benefit the photographer’s ongoing foot problems.
The Bison trail wove through a mixed wood comprised of trophy White Oaks and healthy Redcedars.
Shortly the trail delivers you to the paddock area that houses the Bison. Obviously, when one thinks of Kentucky you don’t think of Bison, you think of thoroughbreds. But 300 years ago, roaming herds of Bison were the keystone species for the Kentucky Bluegrass Savanna ecosystem that covered much of the state. The Bluegrass Savanna was characterized by an understory of grasses and forbs (non-grass flowering plants), and punctuated by centuries old Bur Oak, Blue Ash, and Shellbark Hickory trees. These prairies covered Kentucky. It was the grazing of the Bison, as well as elk and deer, that maintained the ecosystem and landscape, preventing encroachment of forest on the wooded grasslands. Unfortunately Bison were hunted to extinction in Kentucky, with the last one being killed around 1800. And perhaps that is why the bison intrigue me, and why their presence, however small, is important in Kentucky. Just so we can ponder their role in the original Kentucky ecosystem.
On this date we were disappointed to find the Bison in close proximity to the buildings, with our sight lines blocked by fencing, gates, and out buildings.
If you squint a little, the fencing and posts seem to fade, and you can visualize this Bison out roaming the Kentucky Bluegrass Savanna, our equivalent to the prairie.
Large herds of Bison migrated across Kentucky, traveling paths to feeding grounds and salt springs, like Big Bone Lick. The repetitive migrations led to the development of “Buffalo Traces”, established paths for the herds to get from point to point. Interestingly, these paths were often later turned into roads by settlers, and some we travel to this day, like Dixie Highway and US 42.
At Big Bone the actual pasture for the Bison is quite large, and I suspect that in warmer seasons you would find them more dispersed across the grazing area. The trail winds around the acreage of pasture.
In fact, there are plenty of benches and picnic tables that would allow one to observe the Bison as they meander across the grassland. The surrounding hills and woodlands add to the scenery.
But the history at Big Bone goes back much further than the forty or so years ago when the Bison herd was established. In fact, it goes back approximately fifteen thousand years, as megafauna, like Mastadons, Woolly Mammoths, Saber Tooth Tigers, and Giant Sloths traveled to the mineral springs at Big Bone to enhance their nutrition. It was the discovered “big bones” of these animals that gave the place its name.
The excavation of the ancient bones at Big Bone is a complex story and history that I do not have the space or expertise to expound on. There were both formal and informal, amateur and professional, excavations over the years and includes involvement by the likes of Thomas Jefferson, and Meriwether Lewis and William Clark of Lewis and Clarke fame. For that history I will refer you to a link at the end of the article by my fellow blogger/vlogger, Jeff Kennedy at Fishinglocalwaters.com, who developed a segment on the history of Big Bone.
After completing the Bison trail we headed across the parking area to transition onto the Big Bone Creek Trail. As one does so, you come upon the Interpretive Trail that lays just outside the Big Bone Museum. It is a diorama that explains some of the natural history of the region including items on the indigenous peoples, glaciers, the migrating animals, and the archeological digs. It was informative, but not why we came.
I was here for specific reasons: To see Bison, to search for the increasingly rare Red Headed Woodpecker, and to relive the creek wadings of my youth.
From the museum we glided down an asphalt path that took us to the heartland of the Big Bone experience. We transitioned to a gravel path, then to a boardwalk, that crossed a sample of the wetland mineral springs that had been the nutritional lure to the wildlife for eons. The spring water was salt and mineral laden, and animals would migrate here to lick the soil to obtain the salts that they needed. That is why these types of areas were called “licks”, as in Big Bone Lick. As a result of the receding glaciers the area was boggy and the original thought was that the animals got stuck in the mire and succumbed. Closer study, however, revealed that the big bones showed evidence of damage by man made tools and weapons, and now it is thought that the large collection of bones that has laid beneath the soil these many years, reflects that the concentration of wildlife made this a hunting ground for the indigenous people of the region. The discarded bones would be covered by flood silt, only to be discovered millennia later. The site literature states that springs no longer flow as heavily as they did in the past.
Soon I got to relive my childhood Big Bone experience as we found ourselves on a small bluff above Big Bone Creek. As kids we would begin at the western boundary of the park and wade the creek to the main park road. It kept us busy for hours with swimming holes and swinging ropes. And to be honest, we had some outstanding informal archeological findings; from arrow heads and flint tools, to a memorable bone that was exposed on the creek side bluff. It was the late 1960s and early 1970s and there was no such thing as archeological sensitivity. When in college we turned the bone over to a Comparative Biology professor at a local university. In retrospect, with my years of anatomy experience, I would venture to say it was a tibia (lower leg bone) from some form of megafauna; based on its size, perhaps a Bison or Giant Sloth. Certainly hundreds, if not thousands of years old.
On this hike I got my first view of Big Bone Creek in decades. I could envision the Burns boys, and our friends, wading and swimming our way upstream as we always did.
As we crested a small rise on the trail we found ourselves with some new neighbors, a grouping of Turkey Vultures.
We were quite close and had great visibility of them, which was exciting. It did not cause me any great concern, but the photographer, who was still limping on her sore foot, seemed to be a little apprehensive. Perhaps they saw her as a possible food source.
Further observation revealed that in fact there was a commune of scavengers: Turkey Vultures, Black Vultures, and Crows. They were circling in the sky and positioned in the trees.
What struck me was how ungraceful they were, colliding with branches as they both landed and departed the trees. It was noisy beyond any expectation in the natural world.
It was not the limping photographer that was attracting them, but rather a deer carcass that was lying on the creek bank. It had probably been hit by a car on the road on the other side of the creek. The scavengers had done their job well.
They continued to circle above us. At one point we estimated fifty birds circling on wing.
When not distracted by the vultures we had some nice glimpses of an ice covered Big Bone Creek. It was interesting how the direction of the sunlight changed the color from slate to teal.
Eventually, the trail overlapped with a park staff service road. En route we bisected a group of deer that were in the woods to each side of the road, causing a lot of anxiety in the herd.
The road actually took us back to the museum parking lot were we had started our outing.
In summary, this “routine” outing was really not routine. Our close encounter with the scavengers was fascinating, getting to watch their behaviors and seeing the three species interact. Viewing the Bison brought to mind two other Footpaths outings that had enriched my understanding of the role of Bison in the Kentucky savanna habitat (see the links to our articles on the Buffalo Trace Trail at Blue Licks Battlefield State Park and Griffith Woods at the end of this article), as well as our trip to the Badlands of South Dakota. And I enjoyed recalling the time spent experiencing nature as a child, wading Big Bone Creek with my siblings and friends. Good memories.
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Photo credits to Peggy Juengling Burns.
Overview:
Location – 3380 Beaver Rd, Union, KY 41091, about 25 miles from downtown Cincinnati.
Parking – large asphalt lot.
Trail Conditions – the Bison Overlook Trail is 0.5 miles (1.0 miles round trip). The first 0.25 miles is asphalt with the remainder gravel. The Big Bone Creek Trail begins and ends with asphalt with most of it gravel and a small section of boardwalk. It is a mile long.
Print Map Link – none. There are maps just outside the front door of the museum.
Benches – many on the Bison Overlook Trail.
Picnic Tables – many including some that overlook the Bison pasture.
Facilities – both at the museum (limited hours of operation) and a free standing unit along the drive back to the museum and parking.
Kids – of all ages could do well here. Strollers with larger wheels should handle the gravel paths well.
Dogs – welcomed on a leash.
Suggested Paired Hikes – There are three other trails at Big Bone .
Links:
https://parks.ky.gov/parks/find-a-park/big-bone-lick-state-historic-site-7807
https://footpathsblog.com/2021/09/20/buffalo-trace-trail-blue-licks-battlefield-state-park/
https://footpathsblog.com/2022/02/19/griffith-woods-wildlife-management-area-cynthiana-ky/
What a great place to walk. The story of the bisons is very interesting. Thank you for sharing.
Glad that you enjoyed it. I’m fascinated by the Bison story in Kentucky. There are only a few places left with the Bluegrass Savanna with the monstrous trees well spaced out.