Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park was named for the confluence where Big Darby and Little Darby Creeks join together. The park offers miles of trails that parallel the stream corridors as they wind through forests, fields, prairies and wetlands.
The last retreating glaciers formed the creeks you see today. As they melted, the water carved into the soft, sedimentary rocks creating a series of terraces in the surrounding area. Today, the creeks are continually cutting deeper into the landscape carrying sediment and rocks downstream and exposing older rocks and fossils. As you hike the area, each terrace seen represents the remnants of a previous floodplain.
The eroded rocks and sediment form the stream beds in Big and Little Darby Creeks. The various sizes of rocks provide shelter and habitat for the 98 species of fish and 44 species of freshwater mussels. Protecting the creek from increased sedimentation and development is necessary to maintain this exceptional water quality. Darby is one of the healthiest aquatic systems of its size in the Midwest and ranked among the top five warm freshwater habitats in the region.
Streams are critical conduits in the water cycle, aid in groundwater recharge, and they serve as corridors for fish and wildlife migration. The surrounding trees are important as natural "biofilters", protecting aquatic environments from excessive sedimentation, polluted surface runoff and erosion. They supply shelter and food for many animals and shade that is an important part of stream temperature regulation.
The Nature Conservancy named the Darby watershed as one of “The Last Great Places” based on the unique floodplains, terraces and wide variety of plants and animals found in the 580 acre watershed. Eighty two miles of the Darby’s have been named State and National Scenic Rivers. Big and Little Darby Creeks are two of the last streams in America that do not need restoration.
Requirements:
1. At the coordinates provided, what is the direction of flow of the creeks when they merge?
2. Due to the size and amount of freshwater that the creeks provide, what is your estimate of the temperature of the water as it flows downstream?
3. Observe the current floodplain at these coordinates. Where is the evidence of past floodplains and terraces?
4. What two things do you see at the coordinates that help protect these special creeks from pollution and erosion?
Please note, while the park closes at 10pm, the parking area for this cache tends to close around 9pm.
