We went to the park about 10 years ago and found it quite interesting. This time we found it overly…read morecommercialized and very rundown. Many of the enclosures were not maintained and many of them animals looked as though they needed attention by both park workers and medical intervention. It is very obvious that the park is not AZA accredited.

Review Visit: October 28th, 2012…read more A place that brings back wonderful childhood memories. As a kid, this place was a destination for field trips. I remember coming out here ones or twice and having the time of my life. I blame these field trips for fostering my love for nature and being outside. So, it was only fitting that I revisit Wildlife Nostalgic Park... I mean Wildlife Prairie Park. WPP for short, this place is a fantastic destination for anyone living in Central Illinois or really anywhere in Illinois. During this fall visit, it was my girlfriend and my friend. We casually strolled the main parts while sipping some delicious coffee. The park had changed so much from when I was a kid. There were a few things I remember, but they have since expanded or updated mostly everything. They have a pretty cool snake area that is slightly modeled like a... snake. We played around on some trains and took some goofy photos with those "face cut out" displays. The bulk of the park are the nature preserves with wild floral and fauna. You could spend all day slowly walking through the park, seeing wild cows, wolves, deer, humans, birds, and various other interesting animals. Not only can you visit and see nature, they also have cabins/camping areas to rent out. I haven't personally done this as my group of friends aren't big into camping, but I would love to check it out some day. The prices seem really fair for what you get. Last but not least, they hold events throughout the year. Check out their website for details but I've been to their Ren Faire (Olde English Festival) and it was a blast. They also have a wildly popular Wildlife Scary Park each year for October/Halloween. One of my friends has a membership for WPP and said she has tickets to ride the train. Should this rain ever subside, I think it's time to take her up on her offer to go visit! We only have one Earth. Please treat it with respect. Don't litter. Recycle. Leave nature places cleaner than when you arrived. Future generations will appreciate it.

Review Visit: August 9th, 2016…read more Somehow I am usually the last to learn of cool places. Farmdale Reservoir is no different. I have driven past signs for Farmdale many times in my life and just thought it was a giant water reservoir or something like that. Then one day I decided to google it to see what it was. Well, talk about kicking yourself in the ass for taking forever to do something. I came out here and hiked for a few hours and enjoyed every second of it. I decided to hike the 'tough' trails and they proved to be a challenge. Especially if you were mountain biking. While I only hiked about 4 miles and it was just a small section of the map, I was very impressed and will be back in 2017. The entire area is beautiful and far enough removed from society that you do feel isolated, but not far from help and home. This could be a great place to bring dogs, if you have one and they are properly trained. They say Illinois is boring... but we have beautiful places like this to help dispel that notion.

Hidden Washington backyard gem, hiking, running, biking, and dog walking trails all over with some…read moresurprising views for central Illinois sprout out this suburban park as essential oxygen to check in frequently. Coming from Indiana I didn't realize what was here til introduced recently and quickly fell for this lil slice of Gatlinburg. Parking isn't well marked but just like life I kept going until I found what I wanted. A decent Saturday morning gave clear nice weather without a crowd, will definitely be back!

I stay here a lot but the last few times there have been many unleashed dogs therefore I had to…read moretake my dog home because she is old and can't handle other dogs. We had many coming in our site , even though your dog is to be leashed no one was doing it and no park employee driving thru so it made it unsafe for my dog which is a bummer.

Review Visit: October 14th, 2015…read more First impressions are hard to change... If you live in Illinois at all, you know of the budget cuts, budget cuts, tax increases, budget cuts. Jubilee College State Park is one of those that has been hit by budget cuts. Decided to check this place and Jubilee Cafe out in the same day. My first time there, I encountered a few areas that were closed due to inadequate staffing. So a lot of places have become overgrown and broken down. This state park is beautiful and it's a shame that it is in such a bad shape. While looking up some info on it to write this short blog, it appears that after 3 years they finally have a (volunteer?) Park Ranger and a volunteer group to help clean the place up and make it usable. Having never been here, I tried quite a few different places that I thought were openings to go hiking, but I really never could tell what was what since everything was overgrown. Now if this volunteer group is helping out and making the place a bit friendlier, I would love to go back and check it out again. Maybe even update this blog post. I just hope I don't have to mark it 'Closed'. It fills me with such sorrow that beautiful recreational places like these are cut short on budgets and fall into disuse. I won't get into politics, but I hope they figure something out and restore this park and all the other closed/understaffed to their rightful natural beauty.

Another childhood location revisited…read more Detweiller Park is a place I have fond, if not faded, memories from my childhood. I remember coming here on a few field trips and also coming here to slide down their sledding hill. My friend Mary and I set out to hike some trails we grew up traversing and I said yes. We got there early to beat the heat and discovered about 30 games of kindergarten-level of soccer being played. Glad to see kids will have fond memories of this place as I do. Once we got parked, we headed out and hit some trails. Being super rusty with the area, we poked around here and there trying to find where and what to hike. At one point, we had an elderly gentleman walk up to us and give an assessment on some trails we were debating on hiking. We didn't really want to take this northern path that lead 7 miles away, so we took the Pimiteoui South trail about the lower part of the park, then took Dry Run trail to stretch out the afternoon before ending it too early. It was a nice leisure stroll with a friend on a sunny and breezy afternoon. The entire soccer fields, once full with kids, were completely empty. In fact, the park was nearly empty by the time we got back to the parking lot. We saw more cars drive through the park than people hiking in the park. While there are some trails, this isn't the place to come if you are looking for some dedicated hiking trails like you can get at Forest Park Nature Center but still a great place to escape to nature.

This park is soo Amazing & beautiful scenery also. Would highly recommend this park for anything…read more Lots of room to play sports and etc.!

Review Visit: March 7th, 2012…read more After a whirlwind trip in Florida, I came back to Illinois and kept up the traveling. You could say traveling is my... forte. My friend Tim and I decided to check out what Fort Creve Coeur had to offer. Never having been in the area, I parked in a seemingly random parking lot that had a walk up point to a trail. I remember there being a small monument or plinth with an inscription on it. Referring to my photos, there was also a rock with an inscription dedicated to the fort. After we spent a few minutes reading the inscriptions and surveying the area, we hit the hiking trail. What a trail it was. The trail was a lot harder than I expected due to the constant elevation changes. It was a winding and roller coaster hike. After thinking we were about to get lost, we emerged to a clearing that lead to the fort itself. The fort was closed to public access. We could only observe the inside by looking through the spacing the logs provided on the front door. The interior of the fort seemed to represent the time period perfectly; that time period being in the ballpark of 1680. Looking in to the history of the fort, it seems to have been destroyed shortly after being constructed. You can read about it below via the Wikipedia link. Following and looking in to the Facebook and website page, it seems like they host some events. I haven't had the time to attend one, but they sound fun. If the rain ever stops, I would like to revisit during a time they are open and see the inside of the fort. Once I get to do that, I will update this post with some photos from the interior. Funny story... once we got done exploring the fort and the surrounding area, we realized that there was a parking lot next to the fort. We laughed at that fact since we spent a solid chunk of time hiking up to the fort. So, do yourself a favor if you aren't a fan of hiking and locate the nearby parking lot.

Fort Creve Coeur, in Creve Coeur, Illinois, is a historical re-creation of the winter, 1680,…read morequarters of the French explorer LaSalle, who went on from this site to explore the Mississippi River and who was eventually shot by his own crew in what is now Texas. The park and re-creation are probably near to the actual fort site. The re-creation itself will be of interest not only to history buffs, but also to civil and military engineers. There is a small museum/gift shop that offers some background about the town of Creve Coeur and the surrounding area, as well as a bit on LaSalle and his expedition. More about the expedition itself and their time in the Illinois country would be very welcome. The fort itself is in a neglected condition: all the labor and staff are volunteer, and the group that seeks to preserve the fort and its history operates almost entirely on donations from visitors. The fort site-museum/gift shop is open from 10 to 5 Tuesday through Saturday. There is no admission charge, but donations are very welcome. There are interpretive events featured at the site a couple times a year. The fort's website (www.ftcrevecoeur.org) has more information on these. This is a site that might disappoint people who are hoping to have a lot of detailed historical re-creation, but for those who enjoy letting their imaginations fill in the details, a visit to the site could be very rewarding. Young children probably won't be impressed (there is playground equipment near the museum/gift shop). The site might be best for more mature children. The site appears to be pet-friendly: a father, son, and their off-leash dog were just leaving the fort when we were about to enter. The site offers camping. A state nature preserve adjoins the fort site. There is a trail through the preserve, but the trail is not well-maintained as of this writing (8/2013).

Review Visit: April 1st, 2015…read more s from my apartment. Because even as an adult, who doesn't love to swing. Since I went to so many parks, I don't remember much about this one. I do remember that it was a very basic park. It had a few benches, two swings and a slide. Looking online, it seems there is a small loop hiking trail and a bridge. The nice thing about this park though was its remoteness. It was far enough from the bulk of civilization that you feel at peace and the land was wide and open, so you could feel a nice gentle spring breeze.

As far as parks go, this isn't really overly exciting, but it's a good park nonetheless…read more You might happen onto this park and see a sign that signifies hiking, and you might think "Oh wow, there are trails here!" Well, the trail is really just a loop trail, and it's a really short loop at that, but it does lead to a creek. We visited this park for many years between 2002-2012, and in the later years the park suffered from some vandalism including graffiti. There's playground equipment and a picnic shelter, and you can reserve said shelter through the Washington Park District for private events. Where the playground equipment sits there is a decently sized grassy area where you, your kids or your dogs can run and work off some energy. Not a bad deal for a free visit.

To hike or not to hike, that is the question…read more A friend of mine had told that he enjoys going on hikes out at Robinson Park. Having never heard of this place, I decided to look it up. Much to my surprise, it was no more than 5 minutes from my job. We talked about going after work some day (we work similar hours) but decided to drop in on a Saturday so we could hike without worrying about the sun setting. I've never been out in the area but found parking to be something that fast approaches as it is off a busy road. There seemed to be a few different spots to park on one side of the road and an extension of the main lot on the other side. Jacob and I parked in the main lot and I told him to lead the way since this was his hiking territory. Once we got hiking and came upon the first map post, Jacob pointed out the trail we would be traversing, about how long it is and what challenges we will encounter. As we climbed up and down hills and crossed some bridges, Jacob would point out trees and what defects and diseases they have as he is an arborist. It was really cool to learn a lot about trees while getting lost in nature. In-between all that, we would chat about life and he would tell me about his previous hikes out here. Once we got to the end of the trail (which ended up at Camp Wakonda) and took a small breather, we headed back but taking a longer route to swing by one of Jacob's favorite spots. It's hard to capture nature's beauty in a simple photograph. This spot had a bench to sit on that lets you look out over the forest canopy, taking in the view and listen to the wind. I can see why he likes to stop here on each of his hikes. After our break, we wrapped up the hike and went our separate ways. I expected it to be a decently easy hike since I ride my bicycle 16 miles 2-3 times a week but the trail Jacob took us on really put us through our paces. There were a few steep hills that got the quad and calves burning like no other. The main park also continues on the other side of the road and that path, according to Jacob, can lead to Detweiller Park. We did about 5 miles in 2 hours and if we both didn't have stuff to do, I would've asked if he wanted to check out the other side for a half mile or so. I'm not sure if the other paths are easier but if you are looking for a challenging hike, Robinson Park is your place to be. I'm excited to come back out and try the full hikes on each side of the park.

The harvest operation was shut down for the day due to a substantial amount of rain that had fallen…read morethis morning so I decided to do some exploring in the area. I came across this cool trail and couldn't believe there wasn't a Yelp page for it! So like a good and responsible Elite, I created one (tyvm, and you're welcome). Anyhow, some facts about the trail. It's 24 miles, beginning at MM "0" in Alto, and ending at MM "24" in Toulon. It goes through towns: Dunlap at MM "5"; Princeville at MM "10"; Stark at MM "15"; and. Wyoming at MM "20". The trail is well packed (being an old railroad there's a good small rock base) and approximately 6-8 feet in width - large enough to accommodate both hikers and cyclists. Dogs are welcome but must be on a leash. As noted, cyclists are welcome and in fact I encountered two riders while on my short 2 mile hike out, and 2 mile hike back. There were several people out walking too - some with their wonderful 4 legged furry friends. The first two miles I covered had a nice canopy of trees which provided a lot of shade. However I'm sure there are open areas so that in the hotter months I would recommend taking a bottle (or two, depending on how far you're going) of water along to stay hydrated. I saw a few squirrels along the way but one might also expect to see deer, raccoons, geese (in the fall), among other wildlife. There's plenty of parking in the parking lot. There's a covered picnic table, a restrooms building, and a billboard that illustrates the 24 mile route along with a brief history of the Rock Island Railroad. I enjoyed my afternoon walk and may return on a Sunday (or another rain day) to enjoy this beautiful trail. If you haven't been here you should come and check it out. Walking and/or cycling is fun and good for your health.