Shawnee National Forest

Shawnee National Forest lies between the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, in southern Illinois. Its terrain consists of mostly woodlands, hills, and lakes. We were very saddened to find out that there were no forest roads or dirt trails whatsoever for off-roading. It definitely was not your West Virginia National Forests.

But getting there was quite an adventure for us. Turns out that Topher forgot to re-torque the lug nuts on the wheels after we had rotated them earlier that week. So after about 4 hours of driving, we were stopping for gas and luckily our good friends, the Lims, were with us and noticed a lug nut fall off as we were coming to a stop and then another once we did stop. We pulled off to find that we had snapped 2 of the studs on our front driver’s wheel. We were able to make it to an AutoZone and only after about a 3-hour delay, we were back on the road and ready for our adventure of the Shawnee National Forest.

This particular National Forest has numerous attractions to stop at including The Garden of the Gods wilderness area, which features ancient sandstone cliffs and formations like the famous Camel Rock that is on the Illinois quarter, Pomona Natural Bridge (which spans 90 feet), Cave in Rock, and several waterfalls (that apparently are best to see in the spring, because they were all dried up for us). And if you are a wine-o, it also falls within the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail that consists of 11 Wineries or Vineyards. We were able to stop at the Pomona Winery where we did a tasting and enjoyed a glass of the favorite Kir wine made with black currants and apples.

We camped for 3 nights at 3 different locations. The first night we stayed at the Pharaoh campground right by the Garden of the Gods because we were running out of daylight after our delay and after hiking the wilderness. While not the best campground, we found a hidden gem from our campsite #1- a trail that led to a set of cliffs that you could watch the sunset on. It is a minimal fee ($8-$10 I think) campground that offers 12 campsites, vault toilets and does have a freshwater pump on site just watch out for the tons of bees the surround it depending on when you go.

The second day we hiked the Rim Rock trail (where we hiked down to Ox-lot cave, where loggers actually use to store oxen and horses in the 19th century) and then continued on to see Cave in Rock and the little town that it is in. We wound up going to the end of the road where you could actually hop on a cable-driven ferry and go across the Ohio River to Kentucky. We didn’t do it this time, but was told it takes 15 minutes one-way if you are interested. We, then, headed to camp early to just relax as our friends were not quite use to our style of camping and going each day and lack of sleep was catching up to them after having driven from California to Illinois in only 2 days. We ended up staying at Tower Rock campground that night. This one was free to camp at and had maybe 10 sites and a pit toilet. If you didn’t mind the mud, mosquitoes, and spiders, you could throw a fishing pole in the Ohio River. We had a few great games of horseshoes that the boys won at. Then while dinner was cooking, the kids dug up a hole to make half-strawberry/half-cherry dump cake in the Dutch oven after supper. It was tasty!

On our third day, we thought we would hit up the other side of the national forest; we ran into the Shawnee National Forest Big Foot and couldn’t help but taken a photo op, checked out the Pomona Natural Bridge, and planned to stay at Turkey Bayou another free campground to save on cash. Unfortunately, after having our wine tasting at Pomona Winery and getting advice from the owner, he said Turkey Bayou was not so pleasant and to head up to Murphysboro State Park. After checking it out, we decided to camp there for the night and beside the heat, humidity, and bugs following us each night it was a beautiful spot to stay right on Lake Murphysboro and you could see the reflection of the trees in the water. While we enjoyed conversation and made up a garlic shrimp appetizer and tacos for dinner, it was a great opportunity to cast a line in the water. We capped the night off with some Hershey’s Cookies n Cream and regular milk chocolate s’mores. After enjoying our last night together, we parted ways with our friends the next morning as they finished their road trip/PCS move to New Orleans. Even after the mishap with the truck on the way down, we made it back home in one piece, unpacked, cleaned up, and recharged for the next adventure.