Outdoor Explorers — Enjoy Illinois by Water, Bike, Rock or Hike

Located within Three Oaks Recreation Area, this former mining quarry is now a 32-acre cable wake park. Rent a wakeboard (or bring your own) and launch off the jump features. If you’re not quite ready to go airborne, take a lesson from the experienced quarry instructors. Afterward, lounge by the firepit with a much-deserved burger and beverage from the Lakeside Quarry Bar and Grille. For a slower-paced lake experience play bean bag toss or just hang out on the sand.

Swimming at South Sandusky Beach, one of the best sandy shores in Southern Illinois, means gliding through the sprawling waters of Rend Lake. The recreation area is part outdoor playground and part wildlife refuge. After a dip in the lake and a picnic in the shade, see if you can break a local fishing record by catching one of the enormous crappie, catfish or largemouth bass hiding in the brush, banks and off-shore stumps of the lake.

There aren’t that many places in the world where you can ride along a path beside water stretching as far as the eye can see on one side and with buildings reaching higher than the clouds on the other. That’s the setting of the iconic 19-mile Lakefront Trail along Lake Michigan in Chicago. Farther west, a reclaimed railway line is now a 2.7-mile trail with green spaces, outdoor artwork and a neighborhood vibe with access points to Wicker Park, Bucktown, Logan Square and Humboldt Park.

Ride beside a tallgrass prairie, through fields of wildflowers and over a trestle bridge on this 26-mile trail that serves as a path through history. Once a main corridor for rail traffic, Rock Island Trail is now a place for solitude and for nature to reclaim its space. Check out the railroad museum at the renovated Wyoming Rail Station with its original red paint. It serves as the park headquarters and visitors center.

Hike beneath the shelter of some of the largest natural bluffs in the state in this Southern Illinois park with 18 trails. Explore the base of a waterfall on Bork’s Waterfall Trail, challenge yourself with an overnight stay in the remote campsite on Happy Hollow Backpack Trail, or weave through rare plants on the 1-mile Round Bluff Nature Preserve Trail. Trails range from easy to moderately difficult, so there is an option for all levels of hiking skills. 

There are 11 miles of mapped trails crisscrossing the limestone bluffs of this 2,500-acre forest preserve with 740 native plant species. Take the permanently marked orienteering course to learn how to navigate trails with a map and compass. The mapped course takes you by the tiered Rocky Glen waterfall and Sawmill Creek bluff overlook. Hikers well-versed in trail navigation are invited to explore the many unmarked paths of Waterfall Glen.

This forest has roots in nine different counties in Southern Illinois. And there is no shortage of wonders within its real estate. Jackson Falls provides some of the best rock climbing in the state, while Garden of the Gods offers some of the best views from atop jaw-dropping natural rock formations. The Upper Rim Rock Trail circles a dramatic rock escarpment, while the Lower Trail descends to a rock overhang known as Ox-lot Cave.

Three state parks lie within 10 miles of one another, and each park has enough natural attractions to fill a week. The waterfalls at Starved Rock dot 13 miles of rock-lined trails, while the mineral springs tucked into Matthiessen are framed by plunging canyons leading to the Vermilion River. At Buffalo Rock, you can stand on a bluff that was once an island in the middle of the Illinois River. There is no better place for a picnic.