All Geology in Illinois

Winding high along the top of one of East Peoria’s bluffs is the scenic Fondulac Drive, a three-mile route that is owned and maintained by the Fon du Lac Park District. Nestled along the road, which extends from downtown to a residential neighborhood, are some of East Peoria’s most beautiful homes. The drive offers stunning views of the Illinois River Read more...

Just outside of Granville, Illinois in the little community of Mark, Denise and Keith Boggio operate Boggio’s Little Mountain Orchard. Both children of produce marketing families, the Boggios grow an amazing array of products, from fruits and vegetables to dried flowers, honey, and their famous nationally-award-winning apple cider. The in-house market bakery produces breads, pies, and other baked goods (try Read more...

So named because (legend has it) the area once served as a “blind canyon” where Indians ran buffalo for capture, this 298-acre park has long been a natural favorite. Much of Buffalo Rock State Park is set high atop sandstone bluff carved by the young Illinois River just after the end of the Pleistocene epoch. Two park trails, the River Read more...

One of the major on-site archeological museums in the country, Dickson Mounds Museum also interprets the ecology of the Illinois River’s Emiquon region. The site itself lies where two major ecosystems meet: The Upper Mississippi River-Illinois River Bottomlands, and the Western Forest-Prairie complex. Turning onto the museum’s entry road, it’s easy to visualize this natural division, with the bottomlands situated Read more...

The Donnelley/DePue State Fish and Wildlife Areas complex, home to a $1 million State Duck Stamp Project, is managed primarily for migratory waterfowl. Frank C. Bellerose, world-renown waterfowl expert, has designated this area. Read more...

Established in the late 19th century, the 140-acre Bradley Park is the centerpiece of Peoria’s University District. Operated by the Peoria Park District, this large park, located adjacent to Bradley University, traverses a high bluff woodland that grades down into the floodplain of Dry Run Creek. Along with numerous picnic sites, the park also features a beautiful Japanese bridge over Read more...

This 200-acre rare prairie type was donated to the Natural Resources Conservation Service Bureau County District by Mr. and Mrs. J.D. McCune (120-acres) and the University of Illinois (80-acres). Due to the exceptionally sandy soil composition, sand prairies are exceedingly well-drained and are therefore even drier than typical Midwestern tallgrass prairies. However, the northern portion of this site supports tree Read more...

Jubilee College State Park is a 3,200-acre facility situated in the Illinoisan drift-plan, replete with rolling topography and the meandering Jubilee Creek. Visitors may see deer, rabbits, squirrel, fox, coyote and raccoon throughout the forests, while the creek may offer glimpses of mink, muskrat and beaver or one of over 160 species of birds. With a large restored prairie, Dickcissel, Read more...

Located across the Illinois River from the town of Marseilles, the 510-acre Illini State Park lies along the northern edge of the “Great Falls” of the river, where a drop in streambed gradient creates beautiful roaring rapids. The park itself sits atop an old glacial moraine (elongated ridge-type hill bulldozed up by an advancing Pleistocene glacier) and features a dense Read more...

This wild, undeveloped 680-acre park has several narrow, informal paths that lace the site, along with a substantial segment of the better-developed Pimiteoui Trail. The park offers access to Illinois River Bluff Trail, a linear 9-mile walking path through Detweiller Park, Robinson Park and Camp Wokanda. For bird watchers, the most intriguing component of Robinson Park is its 151-acre nature Read more...

Owned and managed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the 200-acre Sandy Ford is located on the east bank of the Vermilion River at the western edge of the Farm Ridge Moraine, pushed up during the Woodfordian state of the Wisconsin glaciation during the late Pleistocene. The site possesses 2 creeks, a floodplain forest, dry bluffland forest, hill prairies, Read more...

This small city park is an amazing gem for wildlife of all kinds, but especially birds! The park contains spring-fed creeks, a beautiful sandstone cliff formation with a waterfall, a well-maintained, and handicapped accessible trail system, and a diverse array of flora and fauna typical of central Illinois. There is an abundance of wildflowers and wildlife in the park’s varied Read more...

Once the main channel of the Illinois River, Spring Lake is now geologically classified as a “meander scar, an abandoned channel of the river. Guarded by a high sandstone bluff, this 1,946-acre site is one of the few areas where upland pine forests still exist along the river. Spring Lake has a total of 7.5 miles of hiking trails spread Read more...

In the heart of Springdale Cemetery, one of central Illinois’ largest and most historic cemeteries, there is a small remnant of native tallgrass oak savanna. This increasingly rare ecological community once dominated the bluffs overlooking the Illinois River in the Peoria area. A dedicated group of volunteers is restoring this degraded savanna, work that involves cutting woody brush, seed collecting Read more...

Starved Rock is one of the premier natural areas in the Midwest. There are 18 canyons cut by melting glaciers at the end of the ice age. They sparkle seasonally with waterfalls or ice falls. Fifteen miles of trails traverse old growth forests and sandstone bluffs with an amazing diversity of trees and wildflowers. The Illinois Audubon Society was instrumental Read more...

Seven miles of hiking trails traverse bluff forestland and a restored prairie through this designated state nature preserve. Over 100 woodland bird species use the park as migrants, winter visitors or year-round inhabitants. Hikers often encounter the resident Wild Turkeys or hear Barred Owls calling in the distance. The nature centers bird feeding/watering station with a viewing window is always Read more...

Warnecke Woods is a 33.5-acre botanical gem that was donated to the Bureau County Natural Resources Conservation Service District in 1984 by Marie Warnecke. Ecologically, the site is a mix of rare black oak/black maple savannah, swampy floodplain forest dominated by swamp white oak, and abandoned agricultural land which is gradually succeeding back to woodland through careful management. There are Read more...

East Peoria’s Riverfront Greenway project is a 1.8-mile walking/hiking trail along the east bank of the Illinois River. Beginning at EastPort Public Boat Ramp, the trail runs through Cooper Park and terminates at Spindler Marina and Campground. This trail project is congruent with Fon du Lac Park District’s planned second phase of the River Trail of Illinois project. It includes Read more...