Crazy rock formations at the Garden of the Gods.

The Shawnee National Forest occupies the lion’s share of the southern tip of Illinois. There are lots of spectacular areas to explore, including Bell Smith Springs, Little Grand Canyon, and Cave In the Rock, to name a few. The Garden of the Gods, however, is probably the granddaddy of them all. This is our second visit to Shawnee, and we finally tackled the Garden.

The Observation Trail is the main showpiece. It is a half-mile circle of sandstone hoodoos, cliffs, ledges, blocks, boulders, and lookouts that nearly rivals what we saw in New Mexico and Utah. The best part is having full access to scramble over the formations. The second best part was that very few people were there. It was easy to get clean photos without interference or waiting for people to clear out of the way.

There are many more miles of trails in the 3400 acre Garden of the Gods Recreational Area. These are poorly marked and poorly mapped. Strangely, these other trails weren’t in our Gaia GPS database. We ended up following trail number 1008D, then 1008E, then 0001K, or something like that.

Unlike the Observation Trail, these trails were thickly wooded, and you had to take a chance and follow little remote side paths to find all the hidden gems. It became a bit of an Easter egg hunt. “I wonder what cool tidbit is down this path? Is this even a path?” Then it was, “Wow, that is incredible!!”

We spent hours at the Garden of the Gods and only covered 2 1/2 miles. Most of the time was spent clambering over, under, around, and through rock formations; shooting photos from just the right angle, which was every angle; soaking up sun rays sitting on the lip of a cliff; and just being amazed.

The first 500 feet of the Observation Trail didn’t look like much.

But then……

Located a few miles down the road from the Garden is the Rim Rock Trail. The first half of the mile-long loop was a pleasant, but unremarkable trek through a dense forest. Then suddenly, you are confronted with a steep cliff formed by humongous sandstone blocks that almost looked like they were quarried into perfect geometrical figures - squares, rectangles, triangles…..

A rotting wooden stairway, with a few missing steps, guided us down to a labyrinth of slots and passageways. The rock wall continued back to the parking lot, with the remainder of the trail following it. This massive wall hidden in the dense forest reminded me of an abandoned ancient Inca temple being devoured by the jungle.

Our final hike was a short half-mile jaunt along Pound Lake, a long thin reservoir with a nice beach area in the middle. At the Garden of the Gods we met a group of ladies that asked us for directions when we crossed paths on one of the poorly marked trails. We again ran across them on the Rim Rock Trail. Once more, at the beach at Pound Lake, we caught them wading in the water. Finally, we asked them what the deal was. It turned out that they were part of a national group of lady hikers called Hiker Babes. When I asked if there is a group called Hiker Dudes, they urged me to start one up, but voted to call it Hiker Hunks. Anyone want to join?

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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