Shawnee National Forest

Shawnee Forest Bigfoot

A few months ago one of my Facebook friends posted a pic of the Shawnee Forest Bigfoot.  I thought I have to plant a box there.  I got the box ready but never made it over to plant it.

Last week some of my kids were on Fall Break and we took advantage of the time off and nice weather to go over and play.  We hiked, climbed, and hid two letterboxes.

I hoped the leaves would have been more colorful but the weather was beautiful.  The kids really love climbing all over the rocks.  There were more people there than I thought there would be.  I guess a lot of kids were on break.

Kids at Garden of the Gods

It would be nice if it was closer to home.  I thought it was an hour away but it is an hour and a half.  And of course my kids can't sit that long without trying to kill each other.  We got almost there and I had to move the kids around.

I hope we can go camping over there sometime soon.  Maybe we can talk everyone into going there Mother's Day weekend :)

Back to Garden of the Gods

Camel Rock at Garden of the Gods, Ill. 

A few days ago we went back to the Garden of the Gods in southern Ill.  This time my husband was able to go and we took my dad and niece (part of BPWigand and Family).  It was hot but a beautiful day to be out hiking, boxing, and swimming.

At the end of last summer my kids and I came over and letterboxed here.  We  found 4 of the 6 boxes that we looked for.  This time we looked for all of them again so BPWigand and Family could get them.  And this time we were able to find one of the boxes that we couldn't find last time.  We came at it from a different angle and had no problems finding it.  But one of the boxes that we had found before is now missing.

The kids loved climbing on the rocks.  Since it was supposed to be so hot we took our swim suits with us so we could cool off when we were done hiking.  It is free to swim at the lake at Pounds Hollow which is just a few miles from the Garden of the Gods.

After our long day of hiking and swimming we headed back home.  We stopped for supper and an ice cream on the way back.  I'm glad that everyone had fun and it was a safe trip :)

Our crew handing out at Garden of the Gods. 

3 of my 4 making a sand castle.  

Garden of the Gods, Ill

Yesterday we had a great time letterboxing at the Garden of the Gods & Pounds Hollow in southeast Illinois.  It had been 5 years since we were there last and big boys didn't really remember much about it.  But since dad did not come I would not let them climb around as much as they would have liked.     

R2-D2, Lego Clone Trooper and the Princess climbing at Garden of the Gods.  We found 1 of the 2 boxes here.

Lil Ewok waiting for the big kids to get a box at Pounds Hollow.  They climbed a dry waterfall and couldn't find it so mom had to go look.  

 Cool rocks on the trail at Pounds Hollow.

This is box 3 of 4 at fat mans squeeze.  We had no problems finding the first 3 but then the clues got funny and we didn't know where to go for the last one.  We looked around for a bit but we were so tired that we just turned around and went back the way we came.  So, we found 4 of the 6 boxes we went looking for :)