Stay Home and Go Hiking

We taken advantage of the 'Stay Home' order to catch up on work around the house and camper to get ready to (hopefully) hit the campground this summer. We are also using our downtime to hike locally at the Shawnee National Forest and Crab Orchard Wildlife Refuge.

The Stay at Home order has been good for catching up on delayed maintenance around the house. We’ve been busy washing our house, tending to the landscaping, painting the deck, and decluttering the house. We have been able to clean the Mantis and install a long delayed Andersen Hitch. We've also taken advantage of a great spring to get outside for abundant walks and runs, as well as discovering and rediscovering the beauty of southern Illinois.

We have been hiking a number of the trails at the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge and Shawnee National Forest. We have been ordered to steer clear of our great State Parks and most popular hikes in the Shawnee National Forest in order to maintain social distancing guidelines. In addition to discovering the beauty of our region, we even discovered a handful of elusive morel mushrooms. Our recent hikes include:

Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge​

Rocky Bluffs Trail. Rocky Bluffs is the crown jewel of hiking in the Crab Orchard Wildlife Refuge, We visited in late March. This moderately-rated two mile trail touts the presence of over sixty varieties of flowers. We discovered a large assortment of flowers blooming. In order to help Lillian with a scout badge, we returned four weeks after our first visit to see how the woods had changed. Parking is limited, but you can park at the nearby Wild Turkey Trail and easily connect onto Rocky Bluffs.

Wild Turkey Trail. This trail was likely built as a forest service road. As a result it is wide, flat, and easy to walk. It is not the most scenic Crab Orchard has to offer, but it is a nice walk in the woods.

Harmony Trail. Harmony trail is less than a one mile loop but offers a photo blind on a wetland and a small pond for wildlife viewing opportunities. This trail is near the visitor center and with a short walk down the road, you can park once and visit the visitors center, Harmony Trail, and Woodland Trail.

Woodland Trail. Also less than a mile, Woodland Trail is used frequently by fisherman to access the fishing pond behind the visitor center. This loop has water views and a good overview of what you can see at the Wildlife Refuge.

Manager’s Pond. After parking you at the parking area for Manager’s Pond, you can find an old road that goes to an old beach about a mile down from the parking lot. It’s not officially a swimming area but is still used in the summer. We enjoyed walking down to view the lake on this quiet path.

Scenic Loop. The four mile scenic loop is a staple of Crab Orchard. If you are visiting, the first thing you will do is drive this loop. It’s within a couple miles of home for us and is our destination for long runs and bike rides. This served as my marathon training course until my marathon was canceled. On this loop, you will see production areas that are still used by General Dynamics, production areas that were used during World War II to manufacture ammunition, a coal research center, and a lot of wildlife. We often spot turkey, deer, turtles, skunks, birds, and an occasional eagle. 

Shawnee National Forest

Cove Hollow. Cove Hollow is located on the west side of Cedar Lake and runs between the bluffs and the lake with several creek crossings. We saw interesting rock formations and lost the trail a couple of times.

Lake Glendale. The trail goes around Lake Glendale in a three mile loop. We first discovered this loop for mountain biking, but it is a great hike. Each time we visit, we think it would be a great camping weekend as the campground is on the lake, along with a beach.

One Horse Gap Lake. This is a very remote location and our poor trip planning only got us to One Horse Gap Lake, not the One Horse Gap Trailhead, our original destination. But the hike around the lake was worth the pivot in planning. The lake isn’t large but is popular for fishing. There is a loop trail around the lake, but also 30  miles of interconnecting trails. We used several of the trails, in addition to a bit of creek hiking, as we wandered through the area.

Millstone Bluffs. The 3/4 trail up and around the 320 ft high bluff expose visitors to an ancient Native American village of the Woodland and Mississippian Indians. Perhaps the highlight of a visit is the petroglyphs still visible high on the bluffs. 

Pounds Hollow and Rim Rock. A great way to experience the best of the Shawnee National Forest is to explore these two sites. A great way to see both is to park at the beach at Pounds Hollow and take the trail along the lake toward Rim Rock. You can then take the loop trail around Rim Rock and take either the lower or upper trails to see the sandstone rock formation, large hardwoods, and the ox-cave.

Panther’s Den Wilderness Area. Panther’s Den was established by Congress in 1990 on the south end of Devil’s Kitchen Lake. The fallen boulders are some of the most dramatic in southern Illinois. The trail intersects the River to River trail, so you can easily tack on as much mileage as you can handle.

Jackson Falls. Jackson Falls is the most popular climbing location in southern Illinois and among the top destinations in the midwest. The Falls offer 60 climbing areas, 500 named routes, most 50-60 feet tall, according to enjoyillinois.com. It is also great for hiking. The parking lot is at the top of the falls and a short 1/4 mile to the falls. The trail follows the edge of the bluffs for most of the trail, so please walk with caution. There are trails around both sides of the canyon as well as a route to the bottom of the falls. On a nice weekend, this may be one of the most popular sites in the Shawnee National Forest.

​Bell Smith Springs. Once May rolled around, Garden of the Gods and Bell Smith Springs reopened. We visited Bell Smith just a couple days after it reopened. The network of seven miles of trails take you along the top of the bluffs, to the bottom of the bluffs along the creek, the spring, or across the creek and to a natural bridge. 

​After each of these hikes, we got carryout at Branch Out, our favorite cafe in Paducah, and enjoyed it in the park. A number of the trails in southeastern portion of southern Illinois will leave you close to Cave In Rock where you can take a free ferry across the Ohio River into Kentucky. This is about a 45 minute detour to Paducah, but makes a great drive on a nice day.

During some of these hike and serval more evening wanders in the woods, we also tried our hand at morel mushroom hunting. During our first scan, we discovered a small handful and were hooked. We talked to friends and gathered their guidance: look near May Apples, under Sycamore trees, near a Tulip Popular Trees, on an eastern slop covered with decaying logs. We tried our hands maybe ten more times, with only minimal success. There is always next year.

As eager as we are to get back to the campground, we have really enjoyed this opportunity to reconnect with our region and discover beautiful locations.