Take a walk through Elsah, a 19th-century village of Victorian cottages on the Great River Road, Illinois Highway 100, 40 minutes north of St. Louis. The village is in a narrow valley tucked between towering…
Browsing Category Metro East Explorers
Moody Park Hide and Seek and Loop Hike
A walk in Moody Park (Longacre Park) takes you past a woodsy-themed playground and along the shoreline of a lake. My son and I walked a 1.5-mile paved loop with a gentle incline, gaining 19…
Former Coal Mine Became St. Ellen Park
Take in the views of far-off hills and be near the shorelines of lakes and ponds in St. Ellen Park in O’Fallon, Illinois. The 85-acre park was originally part of a coal strip mining operation…
Go Up on the Grafton SkyTour at Aerie’s Resort
Soar 300 feet above the Mississippi River on the Grafton SkyTour and then feel the rush down an alpine coaster, all part of the day at Aerie’s Resort. We headed out on a warm fall…
Greenspace North-Schon Park Hike
Hike by a pond then down through the woods to a creek ending at the Nickel Plate Trail in Greenspace North and Schon Park in Glen Carbon, Ill. This is a 2.3-mile hike on a…
O’Fallon Family Sports Park Walk
Walk around two lakes – even one with waterfalls, baseball and soccer fields, and a large splash pad at O’Fallon Family Sports Park. We walked 1.7 miles on paved trails to check out this 200-acre…
Ferry Ride to Hiking at Two Rivers
Two Rivers National Wildlife Refuge is an area made up of Illinois River views, bottomland forest, and swampland. The refuge serves as an important stopover for hundreds of thousands of ducks and geese each fall…
Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary
See a wide variety of birds as you walk along trails in Mississippi River bottomland at Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary. The day we went we spotted a large group of pelicans, blue herons, gulls, white…
Horseshoe Lake State Park Hike
Walking among the green stalks of a cornfield and admiring the lakeside flowers were part of our adventure on Walker’s Island at Horseshoe Lake State Park.
