Saturday, November 3, 2007
I’ve wanted to get down to Shawnee National Forest for a while to check out some of the trails that are located there. A lot of four-wheelers claim that there are no public lands in Illinois to go wheeling on, but they would be wrong. They just need to get down to Shawnee National Forest and explore some of the forest roads located there sometime.
We managed to get a local guide to take us through an area called Fountain Bluff, which is right along the Mississippi River. Here’s some pictures from our expedition.
We followed these power lines for a little bit
We had to remove a few fallen trees
Then we came to a rock section that lead us down to a beach along the Mississippi
We ate lunch on the beach and took some more pictures.
After spending some time around Fountain Bluff we headed over to Inspiration Point for a short hike to a nice overlook.
Fast driving across the levee
The bluff straight ahead…not a sight normally seen in Illinois.
The view from Inspiration Point
After leaving Inspiration Point we drove over to the Little Grand Canyon to do a little hiking. It was a nice hike to the bottom, but you had to watch out for all the slippery leaves on the ground.
We ended up exploring some very unique and scenic areas in southern Illinois today.
Were there any areas to pull off the service roads to camp?
Unfortunately, I do not remember much about this trip and I wasn’t looking for campsites at the time.