Exploring Shawnee National Forest
Hey there, Hive Community! This is my very first attempt using Liketu, and currently, I can only use my phone to post; so I really hope that this goes well! :)
As summer hits full swing, Murty and I decided we wanted to try to take our son, Junior, out camping for the first time!
We have always heard a lot of good things about Shawnee National Forest, which actually spans over 200,000 acres, and thought it would be the perfect place to do a little sightseeing and hopefully a good place to camp for our first little family vacation. :) We had to travel about 3.5 hours to get there, but it was well worth the drive!
A Brief Exploration of the "Garden of the Gods" Observation Trail!
The very first place we wanted to go check out was "Garden of the Gods", which is a very fitting name for this location! It's also one of the most photographed locations of Shawnee National Forest, so needless to say there were a ton of other people there too!
The main Observation Trail, which is only a half-mile long loop, was made of large flagstone that was cobbled together, with quite a few dirt trails that branched off of it. Unfortunately, we didn't get to explore too much due to the difficulty we experienced navigating the trail with the stroller we brought for Junior :(
There were so many boulders right off of the path that kind of looked like benches, but you can clearly see that they are a natural rock formation! It's amazing to see what Mother Nature holds hidden in the most wonderful places!
Again, this is a very brief exploration along the main Observation Trail, but the rock formations that you can see in the second and third pictures were well over 7 feet tall, and they were truly amazing to see in person!
It's really neat to see and think about how the water has eroded the stone over hundreds of years to make the base of the formation to look the way it does!
Unfortunately, due to the stroller, we didn't even get to experience the full Observation Trail; but now that we know what we are getting in to, we won't need the stroller the next time we go, so hopefully we can! :)
If you ever have a chance to go to the "Garden of the Gods" at Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois, I would highly recommend seeing this beautiful scenery in person!
Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to tune-in next time for some breathtaking views we were so fortune to experience at the "Garden of the Gods"!
Stay Trippy, My Little Hippies! I hope you all have a wonderful week! ✌️
If there are any issues with the quality of the photos, please feel free to let me know! I tried to compress the files a little bit so they were easy to load no matter what speed internet connection you have! But, if the quality is questionable, I will gladly post the original file! :)
For the best experience view this post on Liketu
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people(@daltono) sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
Thanks for sharing man! I share my own stuff sometimes, but I don't have that large of a following on Twitter, so I wouldn't reach too many people!
You have no idea how much I appreciate all of your help bro!
I don't have a huge following either, but almost all of the people who do follow me are from Hive.
🤜🤛 I got you mayne
I've honestly never really had a huge social media presence until finding Hive. I've always liked the idea of social media, but it never had a very united feel to it. I love that on Hive it's all about the community, and how helpful everyone on here has been!
I definitely feel more accepted in Hive than I ever have been on centralized social media, and that in itself is amazing to me!!
The place looks awesome! Great detail in the photos.
It was! I can't even begin to describe how it feels to be there, and beautiful doesn't even describe what you see in person! I know that's a long way from WV (especially with the price of gas right now) but there are a lot of cool places within the Shawnee National Forest, and if you ever have the chance you should definitely go!
Unfortunately pictures never really compare to the real thing, but I'm glad they all turned out well! I was kind of worried when I reduced the file that it would mess with the image quality on PC, but I'm glad to know that they turned out good!!