How's it going everyone!? A few weeks ago, I started working on a series of posts that captured some of the many memories we shared on our very first family vacation in the Garden of the Gods at Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois!
This week, I'm bringing you a new chapter to my "Exploring Shawnee" series:
Exploring the Trails of Bell Smith Springs!
After our brief tour of the Garden of the Gods Observation Trail, we decided that if we were going to go camping, we had to find a less crowded area! Our main reasoning was because this was Juniors first time camping, other than a trial run in the backyard the week before!
Cell reception was almost non-existent while we were there, so finding our way around proved rather difficult for a while to say the least! Once I did get some service though, I searched for a more family friendly camping location, and got directions to the Bell Smith Springs Recreation Area which was only about 45 minutes away!
We finally found a designated parking area by the Rosebud Campground, which would end up serving as our home for the night, and quickly got to exploring the trail that we found directly off the parking area!
This trail was actually just a small portion of what was designated the Blue Trail, which led from the parking lot at the campground to the main parking lot of the Recreation Area, but it was still a good half mile or so worth of hiking!
Once you reached the end of this portion of the Blue Trail, you had to descend a small stone staircase to reach the main parking lot, which then leads you to the main Trail Head that had some pretty cool information fixed into the stone wall off to the sides of the Trail!
We had heard there was a spot to go swimming, and you could hear people laughing and playing from the parking lot, so we decided to do some exploring and figure out exactly where it was.
Along the way, we came to this giant stone staircase that was truly a sight to see! Which, unfortunately, is where we will leave off this post, due to the file limit on Liketu! But don't you worry, Part 2 will be coming soon!
Thank you all for joining us, and don't forget to tune in next time for another addition to our "Exploring Shawnee" series, "The Stone Steps of Bell Smith Springs"!
Stay Trippy, My Little Hippies! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!