A lovely jaunt in the park

Alison and I decided to load up in the car Saturday and go see what we could see. Turned out, we wound up seeing Giant City State Park in lovely Southern Illinois so we decided to go for a walk. I was glad she urged me to do this, as my plans for the day had revolved around lying around on the floor and letting the dogs lick my face and then maybe reading a chapter or two out of a book. So we loaded up our pooches in the back of the car and hit the road!

That's Charlie on the right, he's our little beagle/blue heeler mix. Dusty is on the left, he's a German Shephard/Collie mix, but don't ask me what kind of Collie. Our little boys love going for rides in the car. Charlie spends most of his time with his head out the window but Dusty isn't as brave so he only pokes his head out once in a while.

Most of the time Dusty just lays down in the back seat
















Anyhow, we made our way down south of Carbondale towards Giant City State Park. We got turned around trying to find the place and found this instead


But then we found the road to the park. I could tell just by seeing the road that we were going to be in for a treat!



So we finally found Giant City State Park but we weren't sure where to go from there. As good fortune, or Providence (depending on your worldview) would have it, there was a visitor's center to help direct us. This sign was posted on the door of the visitor's center. I wonder what, or more properly who, led the people in charge to post this sign. We've all seen the "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service" signs, but how many people each year really go out to enjoy nature without pants? I didn't notice anyone running around sans pants so I guess the sign did its job.


Once we got in to the park itself, we decided to go hiking on a mile long trail that was rated "moderate" on the challenge scale. The effort we made hiking up hill paid out huge dividends in the beautiful rock formations we got to enjoy.







All in all, Alison and I decided we enjoy hiking in Southern Illinois very much. It's nice to have a state fair down the road to remind me of just how far I've got to go and then to have such a beautiful refuge down the road the other direction to remind me of what I have to look forward to :)








Plus, hiking in the park with our dogs was a great way to wear them out!