Exploring the Shawnee National Forest
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Start your trip at . Pounds Hollow offers visitors a great quaint lake, hiking trails, a campground and picnic sites. On one of those hot humid summer days, visitors can even enjoy the lake at its beach.

Just west of Pounds Hollow, visitors can take a short drive or hike along the to and explore a blufftop Indian rock wall and make your way down a set of stairs through a narrow rock-lined passage to explore the shelter bluff, as well as other neat rocks and bluffs.

West of Rim Rock, visitors can make their way over to the. This area offers a great quarter-mile observation trail snaking its way over 300-million-year-old rocks, while offering outstanding vistas of the Garden of the Gods Wilderness Area. Spectacular rock formations such as the famous and others, make great photo opportunities. The wilderness area offers solitude for backpackers and horse riders, as connecting trails lead to the which winds it’s way through this wilderness area. North of Garden of the Gods, visitors can make their way to the trailhead. This secluded site offers visitors a nice trail onto a bluff line offering scenic views of the area and great rock outcrops.

South of the Garden of the Gods, visitors can make their way down to the . This reconstructed iron furnace was used to produce pig iron in the 1800s. A visitors kiosk and a short trail along is found here.

offers visitors a campground, swimming beach and picnic facilities. A trail around the lake offers great fishing opportunities and a trail leads over to a scenic bluff.

North of Glendale, visitors can make their way over to . This one-of-a-kind outdoor natural playground offers a campground and picnic facilities and a spectacular 10-mile trail network that takes visitors into stream valleys cut into sandstone, high cliffs, shelter bluffs and to a natural arch. A seasonal waterfall is one of the area’s highlights.

Just north of Bell Smith Springs, offers great photo opportunities during the wet season. A set of double falls and rock formations make this a great stop. West of Glendale, along Illinois 145, visitors can make their way over to and explore an ancient Mississippian village on top of a knob. A short loop trail takes visitors up on the knob where they will experience an ancient Indian wall, stonebox cemetery and petroglyphs.

Depressions on top of the bluff convey a story of structures that once housed the first Americans. On the western side of the Shawnee, be sure to stop by to camp, picnic, boat, fish or hike. A 15-mile trail takes visitors along the lakefront all the way to the

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