Category Archives: Hiking

Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch

My favorite thing about this place is how peaceful it is.

You can tour the inside of the house which is beautiful. My kids like all the animals they have. They even have a little petting area in the barn. This peacock scared my oldest girl!

It was making a bunch of noise in the barn loft.

I did not know there used to be a state park where the ranch is and that they have some hiking trails there. The trails went through tall grass so we did not go far.

It has been a bad year for ticks and chiggers.

So we have been sticking to nice, open hiking trails.

Beautiful views of the lake though. We walked on an old road down to the lake. This boy was concerned that cattle were roaming and he was wearing a red shirt… This looks like a nice peaceful scene but Mayflies were out in droves… They would fly all in your face.

It gave us the opportunity to talk about the short life of a Mayfly though.

Science win.

She is on fire with her poses right now… Mayfly landed on my hand.

I let them see it up close but then could not get it off.

Lots of interesting colors of grasshoppers. My youngest son took this. “Caution Open Range Wildlife” The Ranch is so pretty.

I don’t go on as many field trips with just the kids and I because I am so outnumbered but this one went really well!

 

Garden of the Gods ~Hoosier National Forest, IN

 

I purposely made our route home go past the Shawnee National Forest so we could go on the Garden of the Gods hike again!

My kids raved about this hike last year when we went on it!

Of course when we got there my girls started complaining about hiking and said they did not remember it… Thankfully they remembered it when they started climbing and I heard how much they loved this hike over and over. The views are amazing! Little Bit really wanted to climb like the big kids.

Thankfully there are lots of rocks to climb that are not high and nowhere near a drop off. This kid is awesome with her.

He kept telling her where it was safe for her to go.

You don’t have to climb on this trail.

You can stay on the path and just enjoy the views.

At under 2 miles and a loop, this would be a pretty easy hike if you wanted.

Of course my kids don’t like the easy way. You can see my oldest daughter’s shirt behind me in this group pic.

I did not realize she was not in the shot until everyone had already walked away…

HA

I had her come back for another. Hard to see why I want to go back here over and over, right?

I never knew how beautiful Southern Illinois was.

Amazing.

 

You can get a look at what it was like to hike there with 5 kids here.

Hemlock Cliffs ~Hoosier National Forest, IN

This was another one from the list of Top places to hike in Indiana.

I had really wanted to hike in Hoosier National Forest but was not sure where to hike so I am really glad I found this one.

It was a beautiful hike!

It was not very long either.

Under 2 miles.

The hike actually goes up on the cliffs! Which was amazing and a bit scary with 5 kids.

Ha

There was a dispersed camping spot right outside of the parking lot for here but someone was already in it.

I thought we would just stumble on another spot to stay at for the night but we did not.

So I chickened out and we stayed at a city park close to the border of Illinois.

I am finding that city parks are pretty cheap and so far pretty nice.

This one was the Lynnville Park Campground and was $18 a night for Electric and Water.

It had a nice lake right next to the campground.

The biggest plus was being a lot closer to Shawnee National Forest!

Which is where we were headed the next day!!!