Get to know your fellow Illinoisans (Chicago, Alton: condo, work, home)

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by Drover

It's not the lack of mountains that dismays me about Illinois; after all, the Northwoods is one of my favorite parts of the country and there's nary a mountain or even a significant hill in sight. It's that natural beauty of any type is in short supply here. Illinois is very gifted in the sense that it is easily developed and has some of the most fertile soil on Earth. That has led to nearly every corner of the state being either paved over or plowed under. That's great for our economic development but leaves only tiny spots of natural beauty here and there. In Illinois, you have to make a concerted effort to seek out the natural beauty, especially if you want to see something you haven't seen before (Starved Rock is nice enough and all, but after a while it's like "yeah, I've seen this a few times already"). In other parts of the country, you walk out your front door and it's right there.

Yes and no. Yes, the state is mostly flat and is as fertile as could be, allowing for many farms, etc. Yes, there are also uncontrolled cities gobbling up the flat real estate for development as well, but I still think there are TONS of great areas (rural and urban) that very beautiful. You can find them in the state parks, the forest preserves, etc, and theyre quite abundant here in the state. Starved Rock, while great for hiking and all, does get old, Ill agree with that. But then again, there are something like 100 miles of trails in the park, accessing hidden canyons that I still havent seen yet. I even find cool things in the forest preserves (that I frequent often) Ive never seen before. I also agree that it kinda sucks walking out your door and not having it all around (but thats what we get for living in a metro area with 9 million people lol), but there are many spots in IL to build that are surrounded by great natural beauty. Here are some recommended areas to explore that you cant necessarily live on:

Volo Bog Natural Area
http://jackgrahamphoto.com/images/ar...7_image001.jpg

Garden of the Gods State Park
http://illinois.sierraclub.org/conse...Camel-rock.jpg
http://www.enjoyillinois.com/topspot...NOFTHEGODS.jpg
http://raymondwiggers.homestead.com/...aileylsmed.jpg

Starved Rock SP
http://www.scenicus.com/IL/p/il_st.jpg
http://www.indyhike.org/images/starvedrock/sr2.jpg

Apple River Canyon SP
http://www.kishwild.com/illinois/jod...canyon/AC2.jpg
Google Image Result for http://raymondwiggers.homestead.com/files/97_7_22medium.jpg

Blackwell FP
Google Image Result for http://raymondwiggers.homestead.com/files/97_7_22medium.jpg

Castle Rock SP
Google Image Result for http://raymondwiggers.homestead.com/files/97_7_22medium.jpg

Dixon Springs SP
http://raymondwiggers.homestead.com/..._2_2medium.jpg

Glacial Park
http://raymondwiggers.homestead.com/...5_29medium.jpg

Matthiessen SP
http://raymondwiggers.homestead.com/...lionbedmed.jpg

Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve
Mike MacDonald Photography - Complete Art Card Collection

Spears Woods FP
Mike MacDonald Photography - Complete Art Card Collection

Winfield Mounds FP

Warrenville Grove FP
http://content.answers.com/main/cont...villegrove.jpg

Nachusa Grasslands Natural Area
http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~kenr/prair...os/nachusa.jpg

Kankakee Sands Nature Conservancy
http://www.in.gov/dnr/public/janfeb0...s/tickseed.jpg
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/no.../kank_hike.jpg
http://dnr.state.il.us/orep/c2000/assessments/lower_sangamon/images/page11.jpg (broken link)

Revis Hill prairie
http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~kenr/prairiephotos/revis.jpg

Illinois Beach SP
http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~kenr/prair...s/illbeach.jpg

Braidwood Dunes FP
http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~kenr/prair.../braidwood.jpg

Hanover Bluff Hill prairie preserve:
http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~kenr/prair...overBluff1.jpg

Fulton, IL sand prairie area:
http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~kenr/prair...overBluff1.jpg

[rgb123]

I think I was lucky and grew up in a good spot....close to lots of natural lakes (the chain, but also smaller lakes not in the boat traffic) with lots of wetlands and forested areas, with hills too. This is one of the reasons I prefer the far northwest area, its really characterized more by water, rolling terrain and woods along with some prairie.

I enjoy the bike path (prairie trail) in Mchenry County and Chain o Lakes State park is awesome.

These were always close for me growing up so it really always was outside my door!

....it is true though it is not always as awesome or breathtaking as The Rockies, The California Coast or even the beaches of florida.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by rgb123

...it is true though it is not always as awesome or breathtaking as The Rockies, The California Coast or even the beaches of florida.

Depends on how you look at it. I look for the smaller picture, you know, the minute details. While the Rockies are indeed gorgeous, once youve seen one peak, youve seen them all. Theyre quite barren (especially above 10K ft), not much around. Id rather have my senses overwhelmed, something that doesnt happen way high up in the mountains (not many smells, not much plant life, cold, etc). But thats just me.

[rgb123]

well I agree, I think the beauty I find here is on par with those places, but when you are used to one thing, the thing you dont see everyday is more awesome or majestic...a different feeling is elicited. I feel the same way about the great plains....you can see forever, its really quite beautiful but to some people it is boring.

[runninfiend]

Originally Posted by Drover

It's not the lack of mountains that dismays me about Illinois; after all, the Northwoods is one of my favorite parts of the country and there's nary a mountain or even a significant hill in sight. It's that natural beauty of any type is in short supply here. Illinois is very gifted in the sense that it is easily developed and has some of the most fertile soil on Earth. That has led to nearly every corner of the state being either paved over or plowed under. That's great for our economic development but leaves only tiny spots of natural beauty here and there. In Illinois, you have to make a concerted effort to seek out the natural beauty, especially if you want to see something you haven't seen before (Starved Rock is nice enough and all, but after a while it's like "yeah, I've seen this a few times already"). In other parts of the country, you walk out your front door and it's right there.

I'll speak a little more to this point. What you say, I hear from a lot of people,
particularly my friends and relatives in Chicagoland, but also just general comments about Illinois.

They'll often say, oh we drove out through the boring corn fields to Starved Rock for the weekend. They usually tell me they hiked for an hour along the planks laid forth by the State of Illinois, saw some trees (they usually can't tell me what kind if I ask), some rock formations, then hung out at the lodge until they drove home. They often say, "yeah, I've seen this a few times a already."

I will say, for me personally there is natural beauty all over the state. I live in the central part of the state, the most aggressively glaciated till plains of the Wisconsinian Era, yet here's a sampling of what I have around me:

Out my back door within a five minute run is 100+ acres of woods along Walnut Creek. I have hiked and trail run here since I was a kid and have yet to ever be bored or not see something new in the forest. For example, we got three inches of snow last night and this morning mine were the first human footprints on the trail.

I ended up running seven miles and saw all kinds of cool stuff: Every branch of every tree had a layer of snow, when the sun would peek out, the understory would light up like a prism. Saw lots of deer, numerous deer tracks leading down to the creek, scared a fox up that sprinted across the ridgeline, a gaggle of about 100 geese hunkered down on the thin ice of the lake. It's always something new.

And, all of these are within a 30 minute drive of my house, just to show that "short supply" isn't necessarily accurate.

Mackinaw River Basin: 15 minute drive. The basin is 740,000 total acres, much of it farmland, but tens of thousands of acres of woodlands along the river. I can canoe for three days straight, camping on sand bars here in early autumn and pretty much see nobody. Smallmouth fishing in the spring.

Comlara Park: 20 minute drive. 2,200 acres of woods and trails. Larger than half the state parks in IL.

Forest Park: 20 minute drive. 357 acres of old growth wooded bluff land.

Robinson Park: 20 minute drive. 151 acres of wooded ravines and trails, connects to 200 acre scout camp ground with hiking.

Farmdale Resevoir: 20 minute drive. 900 acres. Forest with lots of trails.

McNaughton Park: 20 minute drive. 1,100 acres of forest with awesome trails, lots of climbs.

Detweiler: 20 minutes. 200 acres woods and trails.

Singing Woods: 900 acres. Old growth forest. 60 different tree species.

Jubillee Park: 30-40 minutes: 3,200 acres of woods.

Sand Ridge State Forest: 30-40 minutes. 7,300 acres. Sand from the Kankakee Torrent. Huge stands of pine trees. Prickly pear cactus, eastern hognose snakes, all kinds of cool stuff. Largest state forest in IL.

I only give these as an illustration. It's all out there waiting to be explored. That's about 16,000 acres or so of public lands all within an easy drive from me, much of it right out my back door. And remember this is right in the middle of corn country.

We are not the west where there are millions of acres of federal land, but there are lots and lots of opportunities to be found. Most people never get off the highways and only see the monocultural farm fields (beautiful in their own ways) and never venture further. To me, that's a shame.

So, be open to experiences, study the geology, fauna, flora, get out and move around a bit, observe, and Illinois will reward you just as thoroughly, if not more so, than those places with legions of tourists scrambling for that mountain view picture out of their car windows at 65 mph.

It has me.

[Steve-o]

Nice post! Please feel free to add some of those locations to the thread I started titled "Illinois parks/etc". Id love to check some of those out.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by runninfiend

I'll speak a little more to this point. What you say, I hear from a lot of people,
particularly my friends and relatives in Chicagoland, but also just general comments about Illinois.

They'll often say, oh we drove out through the boring corn fields to Starved Rock for the weekend. They usually tell me they hiked for an hour along the planks laid forth by the State of Illinois, saw some trees (they usually can't tell me what kind if I ask), some rock formations, then hung out at the lodge until they drove home. They often say, "yeah, I've seen this a few times a already."

I will say, for me personally there is natural beauty all over the state. I live in the central part of the state, the most aggressively glaciated till plains of the Wisconsinian Era, yet here's a sampling of what I have around me:

Out my back door within a five minute run is 100+ acres of woods along Walnut Creek. I have hiked and trail run here since I was a kid and have yet to ever be bored or not see something new in the forest. For example, we got three inches of snow last night and this morning mine were the first human footprints on the trail.

I ended up running seven miles and saw all kinds of cool stuff: Every branch of every tree had a layer of snow, when the sun would peek out, the understory would light up like a prism. Saw lots of deer, numerous deer tracks leading down to the creek, scared a fox up that sprinted across the ridgeline, a gaggle of about 100 geese hunkered down on the thin ice of the lake. It's always something new.

And, all of these are within a 30 minute drive of my house, just to show that "short supply" isn't necessarily accurate.

Mackinaw River Basin: 15 minute drive. The basin is 740,000 total acres, much of it farmland, but tens of thousands of acres of woodlands along the river. I can canoe for three days straight, camping on sand bars here in early autumn and pretty much see nobody. Smallmouth fishing in the spring.

Comlara Park: 20 minute drive. 2,200 acres of woods and trails. Larger than half the state parks in IL.

Forest Park: 20 minute drive. 357 acres of old growth wooded bluff land.

Robinson Park: 20 minute drive. 151 acres of wooded ravines and trails, connects to 200 acre scout camp ground with hiking.

Farmdale Resevoir: 20 minute drive. 900 acres. Forest with lots of trails.

McNaughton Park: 20 minute drive. 1,100 acres of forest with awesome trails, lots of climbs.

Detweiler: 20 minutes. 200 acres woods and trails.

Singing Woods: 900 acres. Old growth forest. 60 different tree species.

Jubillee Park: 30-40 minutes: 3,200 acres of woods.

Sand Ridge State Forest: 30-40 minutes. 7,300 acres. Sand from the Kankakee Torrent. Huge stands of pine trees. Prickly pear cactus, eastern hognose snakes, all kinds of cool stuff. Largest state forest in IL.

I only give these as an illustration. It's all out there waiting to be explored. That's about 16,000 acres or so of public lands all within an easy drive from me, much of it right out my back door. And remember this is right in the middle of corn country.

We are not the west where there are millions of acres of federal land, but there are lots and lots of opportunities to be found. Most people never get off the highways and only see the monocultural farm fields (beautiful in their own ways) and never venture further. To me, that's a shame.

So, be open to experiences, study the geology, fauna, flora, get out and move around a bit, observe, and Illinois will reward you just as thoroughly, if not more so, than those places with legions of tourists scrambling for that mountain view picture out of their car windows at 65 mph.

It has me.

You make my point for me. You have to drive 20 or 30 or 40 miles in this direction or that to explore a small patch of natural beauty. In other parts of the country, you don't have to drive anywhere for it; it's all around you, and human development has worked around it instead of annihilating most of it.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by Drover

You make my point for me. You have to drive 15 or 20 or 25 miles in this direction or that to explore a small patch of natural beauty. In other parts of the country, you don't have to drive anywhere for it; it's all around you.

It might be all around them, but unless their backyard butts up against un-developed territory, they still need to drive to access an area that isnt developed to enjoy it. Unless youre just talking about looking at nice natural beauty. To me, Seattle has wonderful natural settings, but you gotta drive to Timbuktu to actually get to physically enjoy them (ie hike, camp, etc). If merely looking at natural beauty counts, than those on the lakefront in Chicago have lots of natural beauty to enjoy.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Steve-o

If merely looking at natural beauty counts, than those on the lakefront in Chicago have lots of natural beauty to enjoy.

Are you flipping kidding me? Chicago's lakefront is the most developed, unnatural lakefront just about anywhere in the Great Lakes. Manmade harbors, breakwalls, anti-erosion walls, piers, golf courses, manmade parks, reshaped by landfill, trucked-in sand for beaches, an eight-lane highway right offshore for crying out loud! This is your idea of natural beauty? What am I missing here?

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by Drover

Are you flipping kidding me? Chicago's lakefront is the most developed, unnatural lakefront just about anywhere in the Great Lakes. Manmade harbors, breakwalls, anti-erosion walls, piers, golf courses, manmade parks, reshaped by landfill, trucked-in sand for beaches, an eight-lane highway right offshore for crying out loud! This is your idea of natural beauty? What am I missing here?

I obviously wasnt talking about the man-made aspect (hence the use of the term NATURAL beauty). And yes, I find peering out on Lake Michigan from downtown to be quite beautiful (more so in winter with the big ice floes). No ****e that the man made shoreline isnt that beautiful, noone would argue that.