Pointless Crap

Early last week I was still trying to come up with something to do over my spring break, when I remembered I hadn’t been to Garden of the Gods at Shawnee National Forest in a few years.  My first thought was to make a backpacking or camping trip out of it, but I had too much homework (including papers and take-home exams) due the week after to do that so I made a day trip out of it instead.  I was hoping to go this past Monday, to take advantage of the warm weather we had earlier in the week, but my brakes started overheating on my way home last Friday night so I had to put it off until after I got my van back from the shop on Tuesday.

I was finally able to go Thursday; it was cloudy and a bit chilly but I wasn’t going to risk not having another chance at all this week.  I had to leave later than I would have liked because I wanted to stop at the bank to make sure I had cash in case I needed to get gas on the way back (turns out I didn’t) and I couldn’t find a place that would take a check.  So at 8:55 I left the house with camera and sandwiches in tow and, after stopping at the bank and gas station, I was on SR 64 headed into Illinois by 9:30.

The usual route for people going to Garden of the Gods from Princeton is to take US 41 south to I-64, west to Grayville and only then get on the secondary highways, but I made a conscious decision to avoid primary highways altogether.  More scenic, less traffic, and much less rushed that way; it just seems to fit in better with a trip to a place like this.  I only regretted that decision once, crossing the ridiculously narrow (but, fortunately, soon-to-be-replaced) SR64 bridge to Mt. Carmel; but it was worth it.  Once I got out of Mt. Carmel on Illinois Route 1 I set cruise control to 55 and I was good to go.

Once you turn on to US 45 to Harrisburg you start to realize that you’re headed into a remote area.  Harrisburg itself is an oasis of about 10,000, but other than that it’s almost like driving through Appalachia with all the shacks and run-down vehicles, not to mention the beautiful landscapes—more wide-open than in the East but nonetheless giving that same sense of solitude and wonder.  Coming out of Harrisburg you can see the Shawnee Hills that give the forest its name rising out of the distance.  Again, it’s just like going through Appalachia; although the hills aren’t quite mountains, the blue haze and the way they roll smoothly up and back down again is striking in its resemblance to the Blue Ridge or Great Smokies.  And it’s worth noting that, while not mountains themselves, these hills do form the foothills of the Ozark Mountains.

After I parked, my first target was the main observation trail.  This is the trail that everyone goes on, which means during the main season it’s where all the loud and obnoxious groups concentrate.  Still, it’s popular for a reason: there is a lot to see!  There was no one in the parking lot, so I figured I’d hit it while it was empty and quiet.  I’m still getting used to my new camera so some of the pictures were blurry, and it was cloudy out (plus the camera itself isn’t exactly top-of-the-line, though it’s pretty good for a consumer model) so they’re probably not the best.

This is one of the more imposing rock formations on the observation trail:

A couple views of the valley:

Some more rock formations:

Some close-ups of interesting features:

And finally, a few landscape views from the observation trail:

As I was coming through the last segment of the observation trail I happened upon a loud group that was climbing on one of the rock bluffs; I had hoped to get a picture of it but decided to just let it go and finished the trail.

My next stop was the Indian Point trail, the trailhead for which was located at the overnight backpackers’ parking lot.  Reaching it involved what seemed like a ¾-mile walk down the hilly access road from the observation trail parking lot.  There were a couple of cars parked in the backpackers’ lot when I got there, so I expected to have some company, but figured (correctly, as it turned out) that they would be calmer and less obnoxious than the group on the observation trail.

Indian Point was where I planned to sit down and eat my lunch; it was easily reached with about a mile walk down the main trunk of the trail.  Just as you come on to the trail, to your left there is a small pond with a decent-sized flat area around it.  The area appears as though it would have made a good campsite—and it had been used as such recently—except that it does lie a few feet below the surrounding terrain, so watch out if it rains!

When I reached the point for the first time, there were already two people who had established themselves there, presumably eating and enjoying the view.  Not wanting to enjoy them and hoping to have it all to myself when I ate, I decided to head back and explore some of the branches off the main trail and come back when hopefully they had left.  The branch I took winds through an area heavily forested with pine trees.  This is no surprise; most National Forests east of the Mississippi are not virgin forests but have been used for large-scale timber harvesting in the past, and in fact continued timber harvesting is one of the express purposes of National Forests (along with hunting, recreation, wildlife preservation, etc.).  Pine trees are very commonly used in replanting logged areas because they grow relatively quickly and also grow straight trunks, which make them ideal for future timber-harvesting when they grow to maturity.

Along the way I encountered a group of backpackers, apparently a father and his two sons.  We exchanged pleasantries, and when they found out I was a USI student one of the sons mentioned that he would be entering USI as a freshman in the fall…small world.  There were several trees down blocking the trail, though they weren’t completely severed from the roots and were still alive and green; I’m guessing they fell down in the ice storms that hit the Tri-State in late January/early February.

This particular branch leads to an apparently-unnamed point along the same bluff as Indian Point.  The views it affords aren’t as wide because they are obscured by trees, and getting past them would have required standing on some rocks that didn’t look too safe.

After awhile I turned around and decided to try Indian Point again.  When I got there, sure enough I had the place all to myself.  I settled in with legs hanging over the edge of the cliff to eat my sandwiches (carrying all my trash out with me, of course) and take in the view.

I was at Indian Point for half an hour or so, eating and taking in the view, before I got tired of my butt on the cold rock and headed back.  The trip back was uneventful; I spotted a couple of deer in the woods but couldn’t get a picture off.  As I left the parking lot at the trailhead I saw the same loud group I had encountered at the observation trail driving into the lot…so I got in and out of the Indian Point area just in time.

As I walked back to the observation trail parking lot I began planning where to go next; I was hoping to take the portion of the River-to-River trail that goes around the base of the bluffs that are on the observation trail, but the maps I had were rudimentary and incomplete and I didn’t want to make a wrong turn and wind up fifteen miles from where I needed to be.  So instead I took one of the wilderness trails that begin from the observation trail lot; hardly anyone even knows these trails even exist let alone go on them, and I had them all to myself as I went about five miles out before heading back.

These trails branch off in several points, but they’re well-marked (including a sign pointing to the parking lot at every intersection) so I wasn’t worried about getting lost; only about taking too much time and being back before dark.  Before branching out, though, you pass a feature known as Anvil Rock:

One branch takes you along some hidden bluffs that in places give you a good view of the formations along the main trail as well as some soaring views of the valley below:

This trail also gave me my favorite picture of the day, a lone pine tree managing to survive in a crack between two rocks.  Regrettably, I didn’t try to identify the species.

Further on down the trail, I came across a fast-moving stream and waterfall.  The waterfall was unbelievably loud for no bigger than it was; I heard it from a thousand feet off and kept looking for it, expecting to come upon a several-foot drop from a decent-sized creek.  Instead, and astonishingly, I found this impressive, tenacious little surprise:

By this time it was getting late and I needed to head back, so I turned around and resolved not to take any more pictures unless I saw something I hadn’t seen before.  After about an hour and a half of hiking back, with a couple of stops to take in the view one last time, I reached my van and headed out of the area.

The trip out of Garden of the Gods is just like descending out of the mountains, and my new brakes passed their first real test with flying colors; I can say now I’d feel comfortable taking my 15-year-old minivan into the Smokies or Alleghenies sometime.  I reached the exit onto the main road (Karbers Ridge Road) and, instead of turning west to head back the way I came I turned east.  Three major recreation areas of Shawnee National Forest (Garden of the Gods, Rim Rock, and Pounds Hollow) are located along a ten-mile stretch of Karbers Ridge Road, and I wanted to just check out the other two.  This would also put me in position to take Illinois Route 1 all the way back to Mt. Carmel, rather than the roundabout way through Harrisburg I used coming in.

Karbers Ridge Road is a trip in itself; plenty of steep hills and sharp curves, wonderful scenery, and the buildings and stores (including some restaurants I should try sometime) are every bit the picture of the remote mountain community.  There has to be a story there.

There’s not much at Rim Rock if you don’t have much time; a short 1.5-mile trail takes you along the edge of the eponymous bluff to a wooden observation deck, but everything else (such as the trail to Pounds Hollow) requires more time than I had.  So I opted for the short loop around the bluff, hoping to get some pictures off the observation deck and maybe along the trail as well.

The loop trail is well-maintained and paved, and in fact is wheelchair accessible on the western-half.  I opted to start on the eastern side and come around, and the first thing I came to was the remains of a 1,500-year-old stone wall built by natives of the Late Woodland Period to prevent access over the hilltop:

There’s not much else on the trail itself worth noting; just some stands of young trees.  I did, however, take a couple of pictures of the valley from the observation deck before I continued the loop and headed back to my car:

As I mentioned, there is a trail at Rim Rock that loops around the lake at Pounds Hollow, but as it was getting late I opted to drive there instead.  However, upon pulling into the Pounds Hollow recreation area I discovered that both roads were gated off.  Not knowing how far it was and running out of daylight I chose to turn around and head home rather than walk to the lake.