The first one, that I have camped at, was actually in Illinois. Yes, Illinois has a national forest. It is in southern Illinois, Shawnee National Forest. My husband and I camped there when we were first married. It is beautiful, woodsy, rocky and has many nice trails. I vividly remember we carried a stick not for support but because we knocked the spider webs that formed across the trails. The spiders must work fast there or maybe the trails weren’t used a lot at that time. Also there are the LaRue-Pine Hills along the Mississippi R. that have 150’ bluffs. I remember those because I’m not great with heights, so I looked at them from afar. These bluffs go about 5 miles along the highway and were seen by Lewis and Clark in 1803 as they canoed along the river. It can get very hot in the summer as this is the other part of Illinois, down south. It almost seems like another state entirely. You can almost picture Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer exploring the hills.http://www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsinternet/!ut/p/c5/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os3gjAwhwtDDw9_AI8zPwhQoY6IeDdGCqCPOBqwDLG-AAjgb6fh75uan6BdnZaY6OiooA1tkqlQ!!/dl3/d3/L2dJQSEvUUt3QS9ZQnZ3LzZfMjAwMDAwMDBBODBPSEhWTjBNMDAwMDAwMDA!/?ss=110908&navtype=BROWSEBYSUBJECT&cid=FSE_003853&navid=091000000000000&pnavid=null&position=BROWSEBYSUBJECT&ttype=main&pname=Shawnee%20National%20Forest-%20Home
The next trip was to the Smoky Mountains, link to Home post.
