Little Grand Canyon, IL

We visited the Little Grand Canyon park twice, once with Caedmon and once just by ourselves.  I admit, I was a bit skeptical at first.  How do you have a "little" Grand Canyon, and how do you have that in ILLINOIS of all places?  I think "little gorge" might be better, but while the name might be a litte misleading, the park is still really cool.

Once you enter, there's a little bit of a hike down to the main attraction, which is the little gorge/canyon/valley.  If you visit within 3-5 days of a rainstorm, a small stream runs through the center, but you don't want to be there during one (or even shortly after one) as its prone to flooding and the rocks are extremely slippery.

The rock facing is quite beautiful.  Massive rocks are lined and pock-marked with holes of various sizes.  You'll have to excuse me, I'm no geologist, but either way, it's really cool to go and look at the rock formations.  My photos don't adequately cover it.

 

The first time we went, it was too went to proceed all the way along the trails.  The second time we went, it was much nicer, we were by ourselves, and we'd been having a bit of draught, so we were able to walk the trails a lot more.  We followed the gorge down and took the trail through the forest, climbing back up towards where we started.  And on the way, we met a wild boar, of all things!  Tired and dirty as we were, I think we finished off that day at a winery!