Very well kept trails with Bluebird houses here and there . Nice views of the Mackinaw on bluffs .read more

Cannot recommend enough if you are a lover of nature at all. Great walking trails, but you might…read morenot want to forget Bug repellant. Early morning is my favorite time to hike the trails there.

Sugar Grove Nature Center is a wonderful little gem in central Illinois. This is an area dedicated…read moreto teaching children and their families about the natural wildlife and vegetation native to the region. There are several miles of well kept trails, a learning center, and a children's play area. The play area is especially unique in that it encourages kids to get dirty, dig, and play in the creek. Also, there are events held all year round, many are free and most are very cheap when they are not. We visit regularly and love it.

Great break as we drive along 155. Cute nature center for children and short hiking trail so they…read morefelt like they were out in the woods away from everyone

Matthiessen State Park is such a gem. The trails take you through gorgeous canyons, lush greenery,…read moreand peaceful streams that make you forget how close you are to the city. The waterfall views are the highlight and absolutely worth the hike in, especially when the sun hits the rocks and everything feels like a hidden escape. The trails are well marked and offer a good mix of easy walks and more adventurous climbs, so there is something for everyone. Even on a busier day you can still find quiet corners to enjoy the sound of the water and the view of the sandstone cliffs. If you enjoy hiking, photography, or just want a beautiful spot to reset in nature, this park is a must visit. Bring good shoes, some water, and be ready to take a ton of photos.

Matthiessen has a lot of really wonderful attributes. I'll get to those in a second…read more But first, we have some real nasty issues. 1. I have visited twice and the actual bathrooms are always locked, forcing everyone to use the disgusting porta-potties. The only running water is a strange foot-washing station near top of the stairs. What the hell is going on here? I get that the park is free, but can we charge everyone $1 so we have functional bathrooms and water refill stations? 2. A lot of the park infrastructure looks rough/dated. There are places where the only way across a body of water is to walk on some manmade cement platforms. Some of them have been toppled by the water (years ago?), making for a fairly treacherous journey if you choose to attempt it. I hate the disgusting metal gate between the upper and lower dells. It totally wrecks the natural beauty. Both times I've visted, there are so many areas of outright mud. Nothing wrong with that, but it seems there's been almost no attempt to improve the infrastructure of bridges and walkways where this is a recurring problem. My most recent visit was in mid-October, when the rain had turned a lot of Matthiessen into a waterlogged mess. You'll see some beautiful scenery and then be forced to navigate a giant mudfield to get to the next thing. Another issue is the generally terrible behavior of your fellow hikers. I saw so many people taking their shoes off and trying to scale slick sandstone canyon walls. I kept waiting for someone to fall off and die. If you go to Matthiessen - and I do think it's worth the trip even with the drawbacks, here are my key tips: 1. Waterproof boots are a must. Tennis shoes will suck. Crocs are insufficient. My kids' tennis shoes were basically murdered by their hike. 2. Bring good trekking poles (at least one per person). You will probably need something sturdy to lean on or probe the depths of water or mud. Each of us had one and I witnessed people without them struggling mightily. 3. Come with your own water and hand sanitizer. Even that will be insufficient to clean off the grime you encounter, but you should never count on those dumb restrooms being operational. 4. Expect that the canyon areas are *much cooler* than the trails above. That's great on a hot day, but could be an issue if you're hiking when it's cooler on the surface. 5. Leave your dumb dogs at home unless you want them drinking some of the foulest water in Illinois. 6. Be prepared to strip off your clothes for a head-to-toe refresh when you get back to the car. They will get gross. 7. If you go on a holiday weekend (I was there on Columbus Day), you may be stuck in the too-far overflow parking lot and have a ton of extra knuckleheads to deal with. 8. There are a lot of stairs. A lot. Take Advil beforehand if your knees are over 35 years old. I don't think it would be too hard to upgrade Matthiessen to become a crown jewel of the state park system. The natural beauty is there. But the human contribution really alls short.

Grew up in this area, hadn't been back for 16 years to Grandview Dr, amazing! The stately older…read morehomes are beautiful too. Worth the drive!

Great 15-minute scenic drive - on one side, a variety of nice historic, fancy homes and on the…read moreother side, various views overlooking the Illinois River. Nice walking path alongside. A few places to park, get out, walk around, and take in the views.

Review Visit: August 9th, 2016…read more Somehow I am usually the last to learn of cool places. Farmdale Reservoir is no different. I have driven past signs for Farmdale many times in my life and just thought it was a giant water reservoir or something like that. Then one day I decided to google it to see what it was. Well, talk about kicking yourself in the ass for taking forever to do something. I came out here and hiked for a few hours and enjoyed every second of it. I decided to hike the 'tough' trails and they proved to be a challenge. Especially if you were mountain biking. While I only hiked about 4 miles and it was just a small section of the map, I was very impressed and will be back in 2017. The entire area is beautiful and far enough removed from society that you do feel isolated, but not far from help and home. This could be a great place to bring dogs, if you have one and they are properly trained. They say Illinois is boring... but we have beautiful places like this to help dispel that notion.

Hidden Washington backyard gem, hiking, running, biking, and dog walking trails all over with some…read moresurprising views for central Illinois sprout out this suburban park as essential oxygen to check in frequently. Coming from Indiana I didn't realize what was here til introduced recently and quickly fell for this lil slice of Gatlinburg. Parking isn't well marked but just like life I kept going until I found what I wanted. A decent Saturday morning gave clear nice weather without a crowd, will definitely be back!

For those who know me understand that being outdoors in nature is my A#1 Happy Place. Whether it be…read morebiking, hiking, camping, kayaking/canoeing, skiing, boating, or just chilling in a park swaying in a hammock, it is the place to be for me. So, when we consider options that are a reasonable drive from Chicago, there are actually quite a lot. My go-to has been and maybe always will be the crown jewel, SRSP (aka, Starved Rock) as it's a short drive about 1.5 hrs away and puts you smack dab in the middle of *nothing else that looks like Illinois*...except for maybe Giant City in Southern IL in the Shawnee National Forest. But that is about a six hour drive so much less doable. Others include Palos Forest Preserves (best MTB in the area), Water Fall Glen, Saw Wee Kee, Galena, S. Wisconsin, NW Indy, SW Michigan, etc...again, there is way more beauty in nature in our region than you would expect, you just look for it. So when we wanted to check out a new place to us, we came across Kankakee County and the Kankakee River State Park in particular. In short, such an unexpected gem and while it's no SRSP, it does deliver for good hiking in nature running along, you guessed it, the Kankakee River. It's near Bourbonnais where our beloved Chicago Bears do their training camp...well, used to up until recently where they now train at Halas in Lake Forest. In short, if you are looking for a quick getaway adventure in the great outdoors of nature, make this an option, you won't be disappointed.

Potowatomi Camp: What a beautiful, quiet campground, neat, well kept, with a good size shower…read morehouse, and wooded areas separating the sites. The bike trails were awesome. The river views were picturesque. They had parks and swing-sets, pavilions, a nice suspension bridge and river overlooks. 10/10 would come again.

Review Visit: September 29th, 2013…read more I remember coming here a few times as a kid on field trips. It was awesome as kid. They taught us about animals, bugs, nature and everything else outdoorsy. Then we got to hike a smaller trail as a group. Maybe this is what caused me to be such an avid outdoors person. Coming back here after about 2 decades was a huge nostalgic trip. Nothing had changed from what I remember as a kid. I'm sure things have been changed and updated since the early 90's, but it still retained that feel and look I remember as kid. The main building has set hours, but I do believe you can hike there before they open, as long as you follow the rule of 'no hiking before sunrise and after sunset'. Don't quote me on that. Inside the building is a small gift shop. There are quite a few learning activity areas to enrich yourself on local foliage and fauna. They hold a lot of events here, so you are surely able to drop in once a week and encounter some fun activity going on. There are plenty of trails to hike. If you want a quick hike, they have short trails. If you desire something challenging, you can hike some tough trails. Just be careful, I know a few people who have wandered off the path and ended up in a business area of Peoria Heights. The last time I was there, they had a 100-mile hike challenge. It was $10-15 to sign up and you record your hiking distances in a book there. Once you reach 100 miles, you get an award of some sort. I think it was a t-shirt and a certificate. Ive been wanting to sign up for it since I learned about it. But life gets busy. :/ Parking is plentiful but be warned; its a popular place, so there is usually a good amount of cars there at all time. But you shouldn't have a problem most of the time finding a parking spot. If you are native to the area and haven't been here, do yourself a favor and check it out. If yo are from out of town, also do yourself a favor and stop by for a quick hike. You won't regret it.

Beautiful natural area, nature center is very kid-centered with friendly help, small gift shop,…read morebenches and picnic tables for resting!

LOOOVE IT! I was thrilled to find over 1,000 acres of fantastic trails just 10 minutes from the…read moreDecatur Hotel and Conference Center. The visitor's center at the park offers maps of the various trails, ranging from .25 miles to 2.25 miles. Even if you get there after the Visitor Center is closed (5pm, weekdays) you'll be fine because everything is well-marked. The trails are all natural dirt (the only paved trail is the bike trail), winding up and down, through forests, past rivers, across prairies, and grasslands. The map was perfect, listing the types of scenery you'd pass on each trail and providing the mileage. The map also notes how long they predict it will take you to hike each trail, which I found to be pretty generous (meaning, I hiked trails in about twenty-five minutes when they predicted an hour.... although I also walk at a quick pace). My point is - don't be daunted by their time predictions. Anyways. As I mentioned, the trails were very well marked at intersections making me comfortable navigating by myself through the woods. Especially since I didn't pass one other person my entire two hours hiking! I saw plenty of wildlife at very close range: three deer, one four foot long snake (don't be scared now), and several hawks. BOTTOM LINE: A gem of an area, just 10 minutes from downtown Decatur. Totally worth the drive.

I love Rock Sorings! The good:…read moreIt's always well kept. Every time I go there you rarely if ever see trash The staff are always helpful and friendly The observatory is just one of the greatest hangout places ever! (Wish they would turn it into a little coffee area) Path and grounds are always well maintained Rock Springs also has all kinds of extracurricular activities going on that the public can sign up for that's either free or extremely cheap The bad: Unless you get lucky, normally the extracurricular activities are hard to come by. I understand the budget is limited and they can't really afford to go fliering the town. But I wish there was a way for them to communicate the activities better other than Facebook. I wasn't a fan of the cross country skiing, but that didn't reflect my review. I'm just glad they offer stuff like that! Thank you Rock Springs and s

Wow what a golden find in Illinois. I usually don't camp in…read morethis state because it seems like one big cornfield, but now finding this place about an hour from my home might make this an annual thing. So after our last treacherous back country camping trip in Colorado, my friends and I decided it was time for some Glamping close to home for Labor Day weekend. We found this place... A man-made forest (largest one in IL) that has beautiful pines, oaks, fungi and cacti all growing next to each other. The camp sites were clean and well maintained. Plenty of sites and hiking trails. There are fire pits for BBQ or bonfires, picnic tables, trees to hang your hammock, & stores near by for beer runs. There are no showers, but there are plenty of water spigots and bathrooms. The camp rangers were informative and friendly. They came by daily to pick up cash for the sites... which is soooo convenient. They recommend making reservations online but you could probably just show up and find a spot. We had a group of 8 and split 3 connecting sites for the long weekend. The entire weekend we probably only saw 2 other campers.

Sand Ridge State Forest is a place to clear your mind and enjoy the beauty of our outdoors! The…read moreforest will forever be my drug of choice to escape from reality, even if it's just for a short walk making conversation with myself!