Beall Woods State Park

The second day of our Labor Day 2023 trip brought us to Beall Woods State Park, in Mount Carmel, IL. This park is located right on the Illinois/Indiana border, about an hour away from where we were staying in Mount Vernon, or about 5 hours away from Chicago. At only 635 acres, this is one of the smallest parks in Southern Illinois, but despite its relatively small size, we felt that hiking here was one of the highlights of our entire project so far.

Although Beall Woods is both small and difficult to get to, it is one of very few tracts of land that still have virgin timber east of the Mississippi River. Thousands of people come here every year to see it, despite the challenges of getting here. There are trees here that are 120 feet tall and 3 feet in diameter. The kinds of trees that are very difficult to capture the scale of on film, and are really worth it to see in person.

Originally, these woods belonged to the Beall family. They had a working farm on the property, but almost half of the forest had never been cleared. When the last heir passed away, the land went up for auction, and was sold to a person who wanted to cut the timber. But due to activism going on at the time, the land eventually got purchased by the state of Illinois, and in 1966 all of the uncleared forest was designated as a nature preserve, and it remains as untouched as possible to this day.

This park is well loved and well cared for, and it is evident right as you arrive. The maps are so clear, and the trails are extremely well maintained. They also have a lot of resources, both in the visitor center and on the trails, to learn about the natural history around you– something that is absolutely worth learning about considering the age of this forest.

There are 7 miles of hiking trails throughout the park. We started with the Tuliptree Trail, which was a mile-long loop through the forest. It is not too difficult of a trail, very good for people new to hiking, and you will get the payoff of getting to see just how big some of these trees are.

A few years ago, there was a tornado that tore through this region, and this park. Even now, there is still evidence of the damage it caused. Some of the trees looked as though they had been partially shredded down the middle, with long pieces peeled back and hanging down. We had never seen damage like that before. And although we wish that there hadn’t been a tornado (especially with how rare a forest like this is), it does serve as a reminder that sometimes nature is terrifying, and we are grateful to have been able to see this forest.

After that, we went to the visitor’s center and met with the park’s superintendent. We had previously met her at the state fair a couple weeks prior, when we were in the IDNR’s state park tent. Her care, dedication, and enthusiasm for this park was evident, and it made us even more excited to visit Beall Woods. In all of our travels so far, it is very clear when a park has people who really care about it, and being able to see that care first hand was really special.

Since the Tuliptree Trail was pretty short, we decided to hike the Sweet Gum Trail as well, which was only half a mile, but goes past a rock cliff. This trail was also very well maintained, and we completely recommend hiking here as well. But we were glad to finish up after this trail, as the temperature had started climbing.

While we were out that far, we went to Homestead Vineyards. They specialize in sweet wines, but none were overly syrupy or heavy. They also had several unique flavors, like lemon wine and persimmon wine. If you are in the area, it is worth heading here just to try some of these flavors, simply because they do not exist in most other places.

Our visit to Beall Woods was nothing short of exceptional. The experience we had was 100% worth the long travel time, and we are thinking about coming back once we have finished this project. We cannot say enough positive things about this park, and we hope that as many people as possible will consider coming here to experience it.