The 12th Annual Maple Syrup Days at McCloud Nature Park will be held on March 5th and 12th, 2022 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. each day. This event is free to attend and entirely outdoors, so be sure to dress for the weather.
Learn About Maple Syrup
The sugar maple trees at McCloud Nature Park are tapped by park staff and volunteers to make bottles of 100% all-natural maple syrup. During the Maple Syrup Days event, you can learn all about how maple syrup is made, from which trees are used to how the sap is collected and processed into syrup.
Visit the tree-tapping station to learn how to identify sugar maple trees in the winter, how sap is collected, and how trees respond to being tapped. Then you can try tree-tapping alongside park staff and volunteers!
You can warm up around a campfire while learning how maple syrup was made throughout history. Stop by the Sugar Bush area to see if the sap is flowing in the tapped trees, then try on a yoke similar to the ones used in the past to haul sap to the campfire.
Next, be sure to visit the Sugar Shack at the McCloud Pavilion to see a modern evaporator and learn how maple syrup is made today.
Parks Foundation of Hendricks County Pancake Breakfast
The Parks Foundation of Hendricks County will be hosting a pancake breakfast fundraiser at McCloud Nature Park on both days from 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Reservations are highly encouraged, but walks-in will be welcomed as space allows. Freewill donations are accepted with all proceeds going to Hendricks County Parks & Recreation for future development of and improvements to McCloud Nature Park, the Vandalia Trail, and W.S. Gibbs Memorial Park.