Tag Archives: Illinois

Garden of the Gods ~Hoosier National Forest, IN

06/27/2018 Danielle Huddleston Leave a comment

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…

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.

History, Museums/Events

Cohokia Mounds State Historic Site ~Collinsville, IL

06/06/2018 Danielle Huddleston Leave a comment

I wanted to stop here the last time we passed but I could not do all those steps!

This time I made sure we stopped!

It is so fascinating to me that these large civilizations existed back then in North America!

You can go to the top of the largest mound! Lots of steps!

A perfect activity for antzy kids that have been stuck in a car! They have an amazing museum! It was so interesting.

With lot’s of interactive exhibits.

Have you ever been to the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site?

It is a great stop, right outside St. Louis!

My Family, Wildlife Preserve/Reserve

Heron Pond Nature Preserve~Cache River State Natural Area, Illinois

06/05/2017 Danielle Huddleston Leave a comment

Heron Pond Nature Preserve is really close to Shawnee National Forest.

This is the Heron Pond Trail.

It felt a little bit longer than the map said to get to the boardwalk.

But it was the toddlers nap time so that might have contributed to that feeling…

Nick ended up having to stay at the van with Little Bit and I took the older kids to the boardwalk.

Found it!

I was just about to turn around when we saw it!

I am so glad we kept going because it was beautiful!

I was really wishing for a wide angle lens!

The trees were huge!

You could see a bunch of little trails in the duckweed.

We read later that they were snakes, turtles and such.

It looks like you can just walk right on top of it.

I took a picture of this honeysuckle because the previous day’s drive through Shawnee National Forest was filled with the amazing smell of it.

And we were stopped to change a flat tire…

We did a small portion of the lookout point trail.

This is a great trail for when mosquitoes are bad.

It is right next to a cliff so it is really open and breezy but shaded.

I am always on the lookout for trails like this in Oklahoma for summer time hikes!

My oldest took some pics.

Siblings get the cutest smiles for pics.

This second boardwalk was super easy to get to.

It is right off Illinois Route 37.

Such cool trees.

There are a lot of trails here although we only did a few.

You could spend a long time exploring.