Turning a bad situation good.
I always try to look at the bright side of things no matter how bad the situation. Fortunately, this last case was not that bad. My husband Jim received a speeding ticket in Southern Illinois on our way to Atlanta for Thanksgiving. I started thinking since we have to go back out to southern Illinois how can we make it a weekend trip. Did a quick search of the area and discovered that the Shawnee National Forest is not that far from where he will have to go to court. I crossed my fingers for good hiking weather in December.
This past year my family started a new beginning with hiking to the point that I am now ready to try camping overnight with hiking or maybe a cabin with hiking. We will see. So since the weather turned out to be 50 degrees the weekend we had to go down, I took the opportunity to scout out the Forest. This forest is over 400 miles, so when we do come back, it will have to be longer than a weekend or even a week.
Type Enter Bang Bang Swirl Sip Ring Swirl Sip Type OMG Bang Look OMG Type Type Sip Oh Yeah!!! – The sounds of me researching
Whew!! So much to see and do there but for this scouting weekend which is actually now just one day, Sunday because my son Ian has a wrestling tournament on Saturday. I planned for us to see Millstone Bluff Archaeological Site, Jackson Falls Trail and the Garden of the Gods. Knowing that there is so much to see and do here please leave a comment below giving suggestions of other areas of the forest that are must-sees.
Now time to pack.
When Day Hiking you should always be prepared. Don’t just show up and start walking. We once encountered a couple hiking that we had to give water too because they thought it would be a quick walk. I am sure that between Jim, Ian and I this list would include some of the same and some different items, so I made the crossover list of the top 10 items to carry in your backpack, and I cheated with kits.
The first thing you should get to carry is a survival kit. These kits contain most of what would typically be on a top 10 list. I know not fair, but I then get to add other items for convenience such as matches/lighter even though this has a fire starter. The second item would be a rechargeable source for your phone. But instead, I would use this to charge my portable charger so we can charge more than one phone which is more efficient.
Next on the list would be water purification tablets. You don’t typically need these for a day trip, but you never know if you get lost or ….. your day trip turns into overnight.
A Rope or better yet a Rope Bracelet or even better a Rope Bracelet that has a compass and other survival items. Mmm, but you could just wear it and not put it in your backpack, but if you are like me, I have my Fitbit on my wrist.
We are up to the last couple of items. I would throw into the bag a Safety Kit, yep cheating again. Then all that is left is your Map and what you should always carry — food and water. There are some cool ways to do that with the backpack water system or any refillable water thermos. For food, we bring sandwiches, trail mix and any other snacks that have salt. You need to maintain your water to salt ratio, especially in the heat. Now you have one item or two if you decide to wear the rope bracelet and not put it into the backpack. My absolute last thing would be my camera.
Tip: If you hike where people hunt pick a colorful backpack.
Day of the Hike
Rise and Shine!! It is Sunday, and after breakfast, we head out to the first stop, Millstone Bluff Archaeological Site. Jim and I both love archaeological sites I’m not too sure about Ian yet, but we were not overly impressed by this area. Perhaps in the spring/summer, you can see more of the ruins.
This site is on a bluff, and the Mississippian people built their homes, carved petroglyphs or rock art and buried their dead in stone box graves 320 feet above the valley. There is also stone forts up here by the Woodland people (AD 600-900), but we could not make those out either.
I am willing to give this site another chance in the spring/summer as I want to see the Ancient rock art.
I think drawings like these are very cool and show how the people at that time viewed their surroundings and life.
Here is an example not from this area. 
I also like shooting photographs of cemeteries when I come upon them especially if there are old and I think the remnants of the stone box cemetery would be awesome.
Mentionable: An item that I did not discover in my initial research was that this area has way markers for your cell phone that you can scan with a QR reader. These waypoints give you more information about what you see in the area. The web version is – https://shawneenf.oncell.com/en/site-list-55850.html, but this site does not contain all the points of interest.
Moving on to Jackson Falls Trail which is at the heart of the Shawnee National Forest we find that you can hike, rock climb, camp and not only here but in other areas hunt. We meet a local from the region that gives us more information about the falls walking along the creek bed, and it turns out that Burden Falls would have been ok to stop at today even though my online research said to steer clear due to hunting. Either way, it was okay as even with the morning rain neither waterfall was running fast. The local informed us that the area has not been getting a lot of rain, so the ground just soaked it up.
To get all the sites in before sunset, we took the upper trail that is only ¼ mile. 
Take Trail #049 to get to the bottom of the waterfall for a round trip of 3.25 miles. This area would also make an excellent campsite to see the Burden Falls, Lusk Creek, Bay Creek, Indian Kitchen or you could stay at the Bell Smith Springs recreation area.
Ian finally gets excited when he sees the drilled in support for rock climbing or from this vantage point repelling. I get …” can we do this, I can do this.” My retort …“ is to do rock climbing at the YMCA first and learn independently,” as all of our previous experience repelling and climbing has been on organized tours and never by ourselves.
Mentionable: This area can become congested, and it is a gravel road so if you are in a convertible (low ride) like us be careful of the rain that would make this route impassable for low vehicles.
Back at the car, we noticed the locals left trash, shaking my head. Now I wish we asked the guy his name and I took a picture so I can put him on blast. This makes me upset as it is a carry in carry out policy. We keep bags in the car just for our rubbish ( use this reusable bag ), and the locals should know better because the first people they are going to blame are the visitors. Anyway, we eat our lunch, Subway, from the spot just off I-57 that gets us to Highway 147. I mention this only because we usually bring our food with us. This time we only took water and trail mix, so Subway Reuben sandwiches it is. After we eat, we head to the Garden of the Gods.
Mentionable: Make sure you have downloaded or printed your maps as GPS can get a little sketchy in this area.
I don’t know if I have shared with others my issue with traveling the same direction. I don’t know why that is, but I dislike driving the same way. So I did make sure that this day trip did not take us out the same way that we came in. This phobia of mine of doing the same driving has led to some exciting driving locations. Next Stop: Garden of the Gods.
As soon as we make the left turn to get to the Observation Trail, there are deer on the road. We scare them, and all we see is whitetails, and I am not ready with my camera. Darn!! As we continue in we make a turn and there is another deer, not a whitetail, but again I am not prepared with my camera. I am still learning always to be ready. I even have the perfect camera strap BlackRapid Breathe Curve Camera Strap
I can hardly contain myself, this area is incredible!!. We pull up at the same time as the Rangers, so the people you see in my photos are them, for the most part. This is a stone trail so I would think that on a rainy day this path could become slippery and that is the only bad thing I can say about this area… Just Beautiful
D
on’t forget to do the waypoints here. There are a couple that will give you information on what you are looking at, so the view becomes clearer.
I wish that today was not an overcast cloudy day as I think the sunset would have been awesome. Here are more pictures. 
From this observation, we decided that when we come back to spend more time here, we will do the wilderness trail system (16 miles) as our next hiking adventure in the Shawnee Forest. My goal is to find a cabin as close as possible, and if not, I guess I will be doing regular camping at the Pharaoh Campground unless we try out an RV van camper.
Please comment with any suggestions on what we should do in this area in the future along with places, restaurants, etc. I am looking forward to discovering this area.
