Shawnee National Forest

Garden of the Gods was the best place to visit if you are going to southern Illinois. The garden of the gods is located in Shawnee National Forest you can hike or just take a walk enjoy the view with your friends and family and don’t forget to bring camera for selfies.

If you love nature and hiking this is your paradise! Beautiful rock formations and lush green trees. Birds and Butterflies galore. You could hike for a week and still have more to see. Huge beautiful place. High cliffs so be very careful.

Such a cool place to visit and only a few hours from Chicago. You wouldn’t believe you were still in Illinois. We went to Rim Rock first and then Garden of the Gods. Both were some of the coolest places I’ve been. It was nice going during the week because we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Bring gym shoes and a camera!

A true gem of wilderness right in southern IL. There are plenty of trails through truly dense forest area. You can find waterholes for jumping, lakes, waterfalls, streams, swamps, cypress, and mountainous areas. These woods do not resemble the everyday Midwest foliage.

Garden of Gods
One of the best weekends of my life! We stayed at Willowbrook Cabins which were amazing by the way. The Garden of the Gods were the main reason for coming down to southern Illinois. It was amazing and such a sight to see. It’s hidden within the forest preserve and the rocks are 100% climbable. Bring a camera, some rock climbing shoes, and a brave face for the breath-​taking heights. I’d say its one of the 7 wonders to see in IL!

I went to a couple of different places in the Shawnee National Forest but this review is on my fav part the Garden of the Gods. It’s an absolutely beautiful place, the rock formations are like nothing I’ve seen before! The formations were created millions and millions of years ago when that part of the land was under the sea. I went in what was probably the «off season»…December…so me and my bf of the time practically had the whole place to explore by ourselves besides one other small group of people. You can get to the formations very easily, no hike required the parking lot is literally a one or two minute walk to the rock formations. Great place for picture taking so bring your camera!!!