Two hundred feet above the river, the ground gives way to open sky. Merom Bluff Park stands at the highest point on the Wabash, where the bank falls off and the view carries west across the water into Illinois.
A stairway of 211 steps drops from the bluff top to the riverbank, where a boardwalk nature trail forks: one branch along the riverbank, the other climbing back to the rim. Bring walking shoes; the climb up earns the view a second time.
At the base of the bluff, a paved public boat ramp is the only public access to the Wabash on the Indiana side between Terre Haute and Vincennes, on the historic site of the old Merom Ferry crossing. Anglers and paddlers put in here. A sandstone wall the WPA built in 1934 still runs along the slope above.
Every June the park hosts the Merom Bluff Chautauqua, a tradition that drew William Jennings Bryan, William Howard Taft, and Carrie Nation in its early-1900s heyday. The rest of the year it stays quiet: a playground, picnic shelters, and a six-site campground at the top of the bluff for anyone who wants to wake to the river. The Town of Merom takes reservations online at townofmerom.org.
