When most people think of visiting Illinois, they think of Chicago, but over the last few years we’ve discovered some really surprising stops in Illinois. We love Chicago, but we also really love discovering surprising natural sites all over the US, and we’ve found some gems in Illinois that have really blown us away. Additionally, we’ve found some fun cultural sites as well. So, of course, we wanted to share some of our favorite surprising stops in Illinois that we’ve found… so far.
Matthiessen State Park
We happened upon this stunning state park while actually going to visit Starved Rock State Park (more on that later in this list) and this has ended up being my favorite natural spot in the state so far. This park holds a really beautiful little section of dells that create stunning cascades and follow the creek up and down through beautiful and rugged box canyons. We only were able to see about half of the park and it still tops my list of surprising stops in Illinois. It’s a must see in the state, for sure.
Shawnee National Forest
I discovered this beautiful park thanks to fellow travel bloggers Dang Travelers 6 or 7 years ago. There are so many different incredible sites in this national forest that are really incredible. The Little Grand Canyon is a box canyon that you hike down and up for some unforgettable views – but it can be super slick! Garden of the Gods is a forested area that opens up to some wild rock formations dotting the landscape. These top the list of stunning spots in Shawnee National Forest for me.
For the Love of Wanderlust tip: In the summer, Little Grand Canyon is a breeding ground for mosquitoes. I don’t know if when we went was just a fluke thing, but I don’t feel right not telling that I was bit over 100 times, though my clothes, and was miserable on this trail in the summer.
Giant City State Park
This state park sits just outside of the university town of Carbondale and is a really unique. There are interesting rock formations, canyon-like cracks in rocks and beautiful forested areas. Stacey and I did 2 trails in this park and we were pretty impressed with it! I would really like to do all the trails here eventually. It’s like a big playground with lots of rocks to climb up and on.
Lincoln Memorial Park
Matt gets full credit for this one. We were camping in Springfield, Illinois and we were just looking for something fun to do and Matt discovered this park that not only had trails, but also had troll statues that were modeled after the Thomas Dambo trolls that are scattered all over the world. Not only is it a beautiful park that had tons of spring blooms in late April, but it had views of Lake Springfield and a really nice interactive nature center that had animals, facts about the plant life in the area and interactive learning opportunities. There are two other amazing things for kids too: they have a reading walk with pages of a story through a garden stroll, and they just renovated a really impressive playground. I highly recommend this stop if you’re traveling with little ones 7 and under.
Heron Pond – Little Black Slough Nature Preserve
This is probably the most unique hike we’ve done in Illinois. The trail leads to a fairly large section of cypress and tupelo wetlands. It looks like a swamp with lots of algae dwelling over the surface of the water. The boardwalk trail takes you amongst the trees and is a pretty unforgettable trail and feels like you should be down in the bayou, not in the middle of the country .
Ferne Cyffe State Park
Ferne Clyffe State Park holds some massive rock areas, some of which are open to rock climbing, but the most impressive part of the park is the waterfall here that trickles down at the end of a really wide box canyon. Now, the one con of this area, though, is that the waterfall is a wet-weather fall. So, to get the full experience, spring is the best time to visit. Also, in the spring, the mosses and ferns are out in full-force. I’ve been in spring and summer and summer was still pretty, but I would prioritize other trails over this one in the summer.
Dixon Spring State Park
This was something we found thanks to someone at a roadside shop. This park has a pool-area and I’m assuming a spring, but what we went to see was Ghost Canyon Falls. There’s a trail that was unmarked when we were there in 2019, but it may be marked now, that goes along the pool and continues down under an overpass and follows along a creek down there ending at a section with a deeper turquoise pool and big rocks that you can jump across and sit on. It’s a really beautiful spot! That I’m excited to return to!
The Morton Arboretum
The Morton Arboretum is a really spectacular arboretum with works of art along the grounds, a sweet children’s garden with a fun little play area and gardens sprinkled through. You can walk through a lot of the park or you can drive through and stop at some of the bigger things to see. We were recovering from being sick when we went, so we didn’t see as much as I’d like to someday, but it still left such a great impression.
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
Cahokia Mounds is a really interesting archaeological site of massive pyramid-like mounds – some of which you can climb, other structures and recreations of woodhenges (think Stonehenge but with tree logs). There’s a nice museum/visitor center there that gives a lot of history and holds some artifacts, but this was a massive site of trade and culture – it was actually larger than London at the time and is the largest pre-Colombian site north of Mexico.
Starved Rock State Park
We left most of this park unexplored because Matt wasn’t feeling well when we went up here, but the two trails I did were, to put it nicely, unimpressive. There are sections within the park with waterfalls that I haven’t had the pleasure of exploring yet and it’s a popular destination, so I still wanted to put it on the list. But I found that the overlooks around the lake were just tree-covered and had views of a massive dam across it. I don’t know… we were very underwhelmed, but I’m open to giving it another chance. And if you’re here, don’t sleep on Matthiessen State Park, which is very nearby.
Even though I’ve only lived a state away from Illinois for most of my life, I’m just now, in my 30s really digging in and finding some really incredible and unique things in Illinois. I hope that we keep finding surprising stops in Illinois.
Have you been somewhere surprising in Illinois? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
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