For our third day in Mount Vernon, we visited Wayne Fitzgerrell State Park and Rend Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area. Both parks are off of Rend Lake, an absolutely massive man made reservoir, about 4 hours and 45 minutes south of Chicago, or 30 minutes south of Mount Vernon.
We started bright and early by heading to Wayne Fitzgerrell SP first, as we knew it was going to get very hot that day and we wanted to finish up hiking as early as possible. This state recreation area was built in 1975, only a few years after Rend Lake itself was built. It was created with recreation in mind, and it is very successful in that. There even used to be a resort on the property, but it has been closed indefinitely. Boating/fishing, camping, and picnicking were always the primary focus. And while hunting has also been something to do here for a very long time, the four mile biking/hiking trail is a relatively recent addition to the park.
Although the trail is 4 miles long, it is very easy to start at various points to make it shorter. Because of how hot it was, we only hiked about 1.3 miles that day, opting for the loop portion of the trail. We found this trail to be a very nice walk. We saw a couple people on bikes, but otherwise it was not particularly crowded. There were a lot of bugs, and it was very easy to spot the spiderwebs in the trees. Overall, a pretty good experience, and definitely worth going to if you are in the area.
Once we finished up our hike, we headed to the north end of the lake, where Rend Lake SFWA is located. From our research, we knew that this area is primarily used for hunting. It is not generally a place for people to just go and hike. However, after finding the brown sign indicating we had found the park, we weren’t sure where to go from there. The address that is on the IDNR website, and on Google, leads to a random house in a neighborhood. We did find a couple of look out points, which were very nice, but at the time we really weren’t sure if they were part of the park at all.
After researching further, Rend Lake SFWA is one of the IDNR properties where actual information can only be found on the Hunt Illinois website. There we were able to find a site map and see where the park boundaries actually are. So if you do want to hunt, just go directly to Hunt Illinois to find it. If you want to hike, just go to Wayne Fitzgerrell SP.
For these two parks, we visited a winery and a distillery. Firstly, Pheasant Hollow Winery in Whittington, IL. They are a fairly well known winery, who tend to be present at Illinois Wine events and at local wine bars. We had come across their wine before at Grapes and Hops in Kankakee. We had a good time here, trying a wide variety of colorful wines. In particular, “Black & Blue”, a blend of blackberry and blueberry wine, is award winning and very popular across the board. We feel that Pheasant Hollow has very approachable wines that would be good for the person who does not have very much experience. Their fruit wine series are all very clear with the flavors you will get, but even the more standard grape options skew sweeter (very good for the new wine drinker).
Next, we visited Schomaker Distilling in Nashville, IL. This place is a tiny, family-owned distilling operation. It is very out of the way, is very difficult to find, and is so small that they do not even have a website. However, they are making unexpectedly delicious liquors and whiskeys with unique flavors. Both of us really enjoyed the salted caramel liqueur and the strawberry lemonade liqueur (which was bright pink and very fun.) We had no idea what to expect when we visited, and we were pleasantly surprised with our entire experience.
Rend Lake is both beautiful, and so big that it is impossible to miss. There is so much to do here, anyone who visits will be able to find something they enjoy. Although the primary focus of Wayne Fitzgerrell SP is the lake, it is an excellent place to go for anyone wanting to hike or bike. Rend Lake SFWA, on the other hand, has less to offer and is more difficult to find, between the address being incorrect, and it not being clear where to go beyond the sign. But on the whole, visiting Rend Lake is definitely worth it.
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