Tante Park
Come visit Tante Park in Pekin, IL
At just 40 acres, Tante Park is one of the quietest and most secluded of Pekin’s natural area parks. Its Woodland Wildflower Trail runs along a creek bank, and past many old growth sugar maple, white ash, black cherry, and hawthorn. The southern end of the trail terminates at quite possibly the grandest white oak in Tazewell County; it is not hard to imagine 200 years of birds nesting in this tree or even a flock of passenger pigeons eating acorns in its shade. Besides its beautiful ravine-inhabiting trees, wildflowers, and morel mushrooms, Tante Park also hosts numerous nesting and migrating warbler species, as well as the magnificent crow-sized Pileated Woodpecker. Picnic shelters are located at the northern and middle reaches of the trail system, as well as restrooms near the trailhead at the northern end.