Camp Ondessonk Trails

Continuing with our series,"Adventures With Uncle bob-Guide to self-adventure in Southern Illinois", we feature Camp Ondessonk trails. I am re-printing a previous article which appeared on a defunct website. Directions: From Marion,ill.,take rt 13 east to rt 166, go thru Creal Springs to us 45, turn right and follow to Ozark. Turn left into town and note the Camp Ondessonk sign and arch. Follow about 3 miles to St noel administration building. Check in here for permission to proceed to the camp parking lot. no dogs allowed. This is usually closed to hikers from mid-May thru mid-September. If you are taking a group in here to hike on a weekend, call first; another group may have reserved the whole place(618-695-2489); Otherwise, just come during a weekday should be no problem.

Cross the covered bridge. The first stop is a short trail below the dining hall/chapel to see the big shelter bluff which serves as an ampitheater. a seasonal waterfall over the bluff may occur. Go back up and follow a road east, turn by the tree house bunks and follow this beautiful cliff line. Be sure to visit each slot canyon grotto for fantastic views. Later, a dead end side trail goes up wooden steps with a semicircle cliff line and waterfall. Back on the trail, the road forks. Let's turn uphill and then another switchback. Now we are on an old rail bed for approx one mile. Upon noting an old horse barn, start looking for a user-made trail on the right to descend to Cedar Falls. GPS coordinates 37 30' 60"N and 88 44' 17"W. On 02/17/12, it had a drop of 80 ft over the top of this scenic bluff line.

Return back to the fore mentioned fork in the road. Turn left and follow to a beautiful cascade over 5 ledges. Continue on the levee road to a swinging bridge, cross and back to the parking lot. For a top view of the falls, you can drive east from Ozark and note a sharp curve, turn on a road going south (road sign has the word "tuck" on it) and follow to the end at the gate. An obvious short trail will take you to the top of the falls and cliffs. Any questions, contact Bob Tyson at 684-5643 or robkay43@webtv.net.

Sharp Rock Falls

Continuing with our series, "Adventures with Uncle bob-guide to self-adventure in Southern Illinois," we feature Sharp Rock Falls. This is a reprint of an article that fell off our former website. The trail to the falls is Shawnee forest property; however, the campground is private. This means no hiking here in the summer when parking is needed for paying customers. Directions: From Murphysboro, take rt 127 north to Ava Blacktop rd. follow this scenic road about 12 miles to the sign for Sharp rock falls and take this to the campground. When the road ends at the bottom, turn left, cross a concrete culvert, keep hanging to the right at junctions, and park where possible when you see the trail and the USDA signage.
This trail is probably maintained by ATV riders with ascents and descents. We are surrounded by steep pretty cliff lines in the canyon. We cross a shallow creekbed and then soon back over again. At some point we encounter a tributory creek crossing our path. Turn left and either walk up the creekbed or climb the banks to follow this canyon as it curves to the right. Now we see a cascade dropping in 3 layers-about 30 ft total. This cascade is probably seasonal, but the walk thru the canyons are worthwhile by itself. Walk back to the car. Photo courtesy by Bill Pinkston. GPS coordinates 37.8420N and -89.4882W. Any questions contact Bob Tyson 684-5643 or robkay43@webtv.net.

Sand Cave Trail

Continuing with our series, "Adventures With Uncle Bob-Guide to self-adventure in Southern Illinois", we feature Sand Cave Trail. This is a reprint of an article that fell off our former website. Directions: 1. From Marion, IL, go east on rt 13 to rt 166, turn right, go thru Creal Springs to US 45. Turn right, go to Ozark, IL, turn left and follow Ozark rd about 12 miles to a junction with Cedar Grove Church rd. Turn right. Shortly after the church, look for a green county sign "Sand Cave Lane." Go straight to its end at the forest (don't block that farm lane on the left). This is Shawnee National Forest. 2. Cedar Grove Church rd is also accessible from rt 147 from the south. GPS coordinates are 37 30' 00"N and 88 38' 51"W. Walk in until you see an unmarked trail on the right. This is an easy 0.5 mile trail along a cliff line. A fork appears later, go right, and come to this huge shelter cave sandwiched into the cliff line. It appears to be 500 ft deep, 100 ft wide, and 50 ft height.
While here, why not continue walking along the pretty horseshoe-shaped cliff canyon before returning to the car. Scroll down this blog to Peter Cave and Jackson Hole as they are in this proximity and make a day of of this expedition. Any questions, contact Bob Tyson 684-5643 or robkay43@webtv.net
12-3-12: Forest Service map shows trail 030 loop starting at Sand Cave. Two of us decided to check it out. It took 4 hrs. Coming in from the parking lot,take a left on an unmarked trail near the natural area sign. You will meet trail 035,turn left. This will junction with trail 030 loop. A left will afford a couple nice formations;Otherwise, go right to a huge shelter cave. Looks about 400 ft long,and 40 ft deep. Continue along smaller caves and a cliff canyon. Soon it veers left with a different cliff line on each turn. Eventually we meander thru woods and isolated cliffs. 030 sign disappeared at maxwell Ford: turn right and head uphill: 030 sign reappears.After a long ascent along cliffs, we turn left for a short distance on 032 and junction with River to River trail(001). Turn  left,go straight at a later major junction,and as we get closer to Cedar Grove Church Rd, a left turn for 030 reappears. now we head north along switchbacks, reach 035, take this back to the natural area sign,and back to the car. This loop was rocky,very few mudholes,and well constructed.

Round Bluff Nature Preserve

Continuing with our series,"Adventures With Uncle Bob-Guide to Self-Adventure in Southern Illinois", we feature the above 1.2 mile loop trail. This is a reprint since disappearing from our former website. Directions: In Goreville, go south on rt 37 to Fern Clyffe State Park. At a stop sign, go left and follow the Round Bluff sign to the parking lot. Brochure at the side of the sign board. Let's start on the right. The trail encompasses a huge Sandstone knob with constant baseline views of cliffs up to 110 ft high. We pass the state champion Winged Elm tree, a desert-like glade, a shelter bluff, four fern species, wood staircases to shorten ascents and descents, interesting rock formations, and finally finish at a picnic shelter. The signboard used to say no dogs but on this date, 2-17-12, there was no admonition. GPS coordinates are N 37.5295 and W -88.97785. Any questions, contact Bob Tyson ay 618-684-5643 or robkay43@webtv.net.

Pickle Springs Loop Trail

Continuing with this series,"Adventures with Uncle Bob-Guide to Self-Adventure", we feature this Missouri Dept of Conservation trail. It is reproduced here as it disappeared from a previous website. Directions: From Chester,ill cross the bridge and go about 5 miles to county H, and follow this until it ends at St Mary. Turn left, and go to county Z. Follow to I-55 and go north to Rt 32. Follow this approx 15 miles and you see the brown conservation area sign. Turn left and follow to the parking lot. Alternatively, for a scenic view,get off I-55 at Ozora exit, take N to P, then north on B to rt 32. This will take you over scenic ridgetops and the winery in the cave.

Coming out of the parking lot, we have a 2 mile loop junction: let's go left. Soon we come to a unique cliff area with a double buttress arches, the keyhole, and the slot. Our arches picture has been moved to http://www.naturalarches.org( click GIS for any state). The trail is up and down but not steep. We encounter waterfalls, rock shelters, and strange rock formations. Near the end, we are up on high rock cedar glade overlooking the valley and back to the parking lot. GPS coordinatesare N 37.7959 and W -90.2668. Make a day out of this outing by visiting nearby Hickory Canyon Conservation area and Hawn State Park. The winery requires that visitors buy one bottle of wine for every 5 people in a group in order to enter the cave( lighted and tables). More info from Bob Tyson at 618-684-5643 or robkay43@webtv.net.

Hayes Creek Trails

Continuing with our "Adventures With Uncle Bob-Guide to Self-Adventure in Southern Illinois," we feature the above area on Shawnee National Forest trails 491A and 491. The Shawnee staff has improved and relocated these trails in the last 2 years. Two of us visited 01/23/2012. Directions: go south from Eddyville on Rt 145 and look for Neighbors Rd and turn right. After 1/4 mile look on the left for sign 491A (room for no more than 3 cars if muddy).

491A descends gradually downhill on several switchbacks with exposed pretty cliff lines on both sides of the trail. Waterfall cascades are abundant. Cliff views will be more prominent during leaf-off since the trail is not directly underneath the walls. After 25 minutes, we reach a junction: 491A straight ahead thru Hayes Creek, 491 south, and 491 north. We first went north (right) on 491. This was muddy in places but as a riverside trail in a canyon, we are treated to continual cliff lines on both sides. 30 minutes later, the water was too high to turn left on it, so we continued straight ahead as 4961. Again this tributary was to deep to cross and connect with 496 and on to the River to River trail. The horse tie up over the creek shows GPS coordinates 37 29' 08"N and 88 37' 19"w.

We retreated back to the junction with 491 and 491A and traveled south on 491. We slowly ascend to a rim top view over Hayes Creek for 200 yards while continuing to take in the pretty cliffs on both sides. Forest did a great job on this segment. Note the 30 ft waterfall cascade. Unfortunately, 491 crossed the creek again as it heads to Bay Creek ranch. This adventure is worth it even if impeded by creek levels. Upon return to the car, we continued further south on rt 145 and turned onto FR 652 sign. It was a good one lane road which took us to two trail heads. The first one shows 031D which goes west to Bay Creek ranch. Driving a little further, another parking area shows a junction for 491A east, 491, as well as #031 west to the ranch. Contact Bob Tyson at 684-5643 or robkay43@webtv.net for further questions.

02/06/12:we returned to Fr 562 rd and parked at jct with 031D. sign says 1 mile to jct with 031. it was well marked but poor trail tread and devoid of scenery. We come to jct 031; go left to see a pretty cliff line and follow to 031H and end up on Cedar Grove Church rd. Go right to follow 031 as a loop back to FR 562. This segment went thru ravines, good tread in places, but cliff lines were more distant from the trail. The time for this loop back to the car was 1 hr 45 minutes.

From 031D parking area, we drove north 1/4 mile to another parking area(gravel pile) and took 491. This was good trail tread, well-marked, some nice cliff features, and arrive at Hayes creek crossing in 20 minutes. While here, we picked up 491A back to the car. This was good trail tread, well marked, but little scenic value except distant views over ridgetops. It ends on a long rock glade. Turn left on the road and proceed 0.2 back to the car. This segment was 35 minutes.

Peabody/Forest Service Land Swap

The comment period ends Jan 31. While the Shawnee would gve one property near the confluence of the Saline river and the Ohio (Gallatin county) in exchange for 2 Peabody properties, there is an environmental issue regarding the one near the Ohio River. This property protects a maternity roost colony of federally endangered Indiana bats, habitat for Gray bats, high quality natural area which includes rare hardwood forest bottomland.
Tell the Forest Service to stop this swap. Mailed comments may be sent to Hurston Nicholas, supervisor. Shawnee National Forest. 50 Hwy 145 South. Harrisburg,Ill. 62946. The subject of the letter is: ALHI-Shawnee NF land exchange proposal. You may also email to: comments-eastern-shawnee@fs.fed.us