Category Archives: Outdoors

National Forest, Outdoors

Shawnee Nation Forest ~Southern Illinois

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The Rim Rock Trail in the Shawnee National Forest was nice and easy with some pretty views.

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We also saw a snake climbing a tree!

But the winner of Shawnee National Forest for us was definitely the Garden of the Gods Trail!

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It had an easy walking path, beautiful views, amazing light because of it being late in the day and…

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Climbing!

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My kids loved climbing on all the rocks.

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He takes his photo bombing seriously…

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Even little bit loves to climb.

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My kids were like “Path? What path?”

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We just had to keep an eye on what was on the other side of their climbs.

Thankfully there were plenty of rocks nowhere near the edge.

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This was a huge hit!

So glad we found this beautiful hike!

Outdoors

TREC ~Bike Trail in Effingham, ILL

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Whenever we are going to visit my family in Indiana, we like to stop at Effingham, ILL.

This is the first time I had seen anything about this bike trail though.

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It was nice to get out and run around!

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It is a beautiful trail also!

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It took a lot to get my kids to stop getting in the shot of just Nick and I…

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Snake!

Nick moved it off the trail.

Glad we have a new place to run off some energy after the long drive through Illinois.

 It can be difficult to find the entrances so make sure you read up on it before you go.

There website is, here.

Outdoors, Wildlife Preserve/Reserve

Shaw Nature Reserve, MO

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While very beautiful and really close to Interstate 40, most of the trails are not accessible except by foot on weekends.

The main road that goes through the Reserve is closed Friday-Sunday to vehicles.

I can’t find any information about this on their website but we were told that was the case and they had the road closed when we were there on a Friday.

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I thought this rain garden idea was interesting.

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The garden at Bascom House was beautiful.

I would like to go again when all the trails are accessible or we are able to hike to the other trails.

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Beautiful stop right outside St. Louis.

Find more information at their website, here.