What is it about locals not going to the parks closest to them? I am just as guilty of this as anyone. I see the state and national parks hours away and am drawn to them, but when I think of going to one that isn’t very far from home, I always assume that it will be a waste of time or lame. Recently, I changed my tune as I have tried to check off all the state parks in my home state as well as several of the state parks close by in neighboring states.
Recently I went to the Garden of the Gods at Shawnee National Forest. I have stopped there once on the way home from a track meet but have never gone there as a destination point. We did three trails while there. This was a quick trip and did not have the luxury of spending multiple days there camping like so many enjoy doing. The first trail we completed was Indian Point Trail. The app AllTrails stated that it was 1.7 miles, but it was over 2 miles for us because we stopped at several detours of overlooks and small caves along the way. I loved Indian Point Trail and would recommend it to those looking for a short little hike to warm up or if you don’t have much time. The overlooks were gorgeous and I would love to see the foliage in the fall. While hiking we came across several camp sites. I loved the thought of waking up and being able to sit on the overlook and watch the sun rise. The small caves were neat as well. Caves are often damp and dark and somewhat of a haven for all the things I hate, like giant spiders and camel crickets also known as cave crickets. If you don’t know what those are, they’re basically a jumping spider. This cave had a fair share of camel crickets and that was enough to send me straight back to the trail!
We made our way back to the car and stopped for a snack and drink while deciding on our next trail. I brought my new favorite snack – Archer Jerky – and an old favorite of mine, Blueberry Bai drink. We decided on our trail and it ended up being partially a horse trail, one of many atShawnee National Forest.My grandpa has gone on a few horseback riding trips through this forest and enjoyed it. He has warnedfor years, but even more so now, to watch for rattlesnakes. I didn’t see any when I was there but he has seen many through the years of horseback riding. This trail had some very unique rock features that wecould climb on, under, over, and through. The only downfallabout this trail is that it was an out and back trail. The Garden of the Gods Trail on Alltrails said it was 2.1, but it was part of the horse trail which was very long, more than triple in length. I lost signal so we just hiked until we felt like turning around and it ended up being about 3 miles in total. I liked this trail better than the first one because of the uniqueness of the rock structures as well as the overlooks.
The last trail we did was a touristy one: Observation Trail. It was the shortest trail at only .6 miles and part of it was wheelchair accessible, but ithad the best views out of them all. e. The overlook on this trail was better in my opinion because it was higher than all of the trees and wecould see more rock structures below. . We stayed on this trail for almost an hour and took many pictures. I would have loved to have stayed until the sunset but we couldn’t, so we drove home eating homemade chex mix.
Audrey Hikes a Lot 