In our modern lives, an escape to nature can inspire any person.

And for an artist, an escape to nature can inspire them to create. As an artist who lives just a little over an hour’s drive away in Indianapolis, Brown County offers me and my family an escape to nature on a single Saturday afternoon or an adventure spanning multiple days.

And though it’s just an hour away, when I return—no matter how long I’ve been gone—I truly feel like I went “somewhere.” It’s the exact same feeling I get when I’m in the throes of creating. I look up at the clock and think, “Gee, where did the time go?”

But you don’t need to be an artist to feel that connection to nature or experience “time” in that manner—simply walk the trails at Brown County State Park. It’s like meandering through an imaginary world of wonder.

But this world is not imaginary. It’s real. And right now, the trees are asking you to visit. Right here in Brown County, Indiana. Where the range in hue between leaves—from bright reds to burnt oranges and ochres—grabs your attention like a firework display.

And just as breathtaking is a September afternoon hike before the leaves change. You stumble upon a pawpaw patch ripe with fruit and see the amazement in your child’s eyes. These inspirational moments in nature become still lifes forever burned in my mind. These moments become the beginning of a poem, the source of inspiration for the melody of a glad song I can’t stop humming.

These moments are why I continually return to Brown County—for inspiration as an artist and to introduce my children to a real world of wonder. Because in our modern world, these kinds of places are few and far between.