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.
The hike actually goes up on the cliffs!
Which was amazing and a bit scary with 5 kids.
It had a nice lake right next to the campground.
I went to the office and tried to explain the trail I remembered to the ranger.
She finally did make sense of my crazy memories and recommend a trail that she thought the kids would like as well.
The Jackson Creek Trail
Narrow means you are brushing up against folliage.
Little bit has the hardest time on these kinds of trails because she gets hit in the face from all the plants.
I was pretty sure this was one of our fail hikes of the trip.
We were going to try to find a place to boondock in Hoosier National Forest but I panicked about not being able to find a place and we stayed here.
I like that I am one of those super organized camper/rvers.
I did like that zero hookups meant spending more time outside the rv.
This was a really pretty site.
We only stayed one night so we packed it all back up and headed farther south to Hemlock Cliffs and Hoosier National Forest the next morning.
Have you ever tried to keep five kids from brushing up against poison ivy when it is all over the trail?
Still, it is a beautiful forest.