Walnut Point SP and Lincoln Trail Homestead SP

Our 2025 hiking season kicked off with a bang. On March 13th, we were presented with the Outdoor Influencers of the Year award, and two days later we drove down for our first two parks of the year: Walnut Point State Park and Lincoln Trail Homestead State Park and Memorial. Walnut Point SP is in Oakland, IL, about 3 hours south of Chicago or an hour south of Champaign. Lincoln Trail Homestead is located in Decatur, IL, and is also about 3 hours south of Chicago, but the two parks are about an hour and a half away from each other.

We ended up doing these parks on separate days, so we started our weekend off with Walnut Point SP. This park is named for the first pioneer settlement in Douglas County, but it is no longer in existence. The park opened in 1968.

We went so early in the season that the trees hadn’t started blooming yet. We knew that we had a big hiking trip in April, but wanted to get a couple parks out before then. Despite it being a little cool, and very hazy, we were excited to get the season started. We decided to hike the Whispering Pines Trail. This is supposedly a loop, but we lost parts of the trail because of the dead leaves fully covering some areas. We still walked around a mile, but we did end up having to turn back because it got too difficult to figure out where the trail went.

It was a very peaceful walk, with plenty of walnuts littering the ground and living up to the park’s name. Most of the path stayed close to the lake, which was very nice and calm. The only hitch was that there was very heavy rain the day before, and part of the path was a VERY muddy incline that was extremely difficult to get across without slipping. We did eventually get across, but we had to scrape our shoes to get traction back.

After that, we went to Treehive Meadery in Brocton, IL. This town is tiny, and it is shocking that there is a meadery there. They have a pretty decent selection of flavors for it being way out there.

The next day we headed to Lincoln Trail Homestead SP, but we stopped at Coffee Corner in Clinton, IL first. We have been here a lot, but we never had the opportunity to feature them until this park. Stephanie always gets excited about their coffee, and while I don’t drink coffee myself, I have enjoyed matcha or other tea on cold mornings, or a raspberry smoothie on hot mornings.

Lincoln Trail Homestead is a very small park, at only 82 acres. The memorials here commemorate the approximate location of Abraham Lincoln’s first home in Illinois. It is right on the Sangamon River, and there are a few staircases to get direct access to it.

There is actually hiking here, despite it being so small. None of the trails are that long, and one in particular seemed to focus on education, so this would be a good place to bring kids who are learning about plants and nature. There is another trail that is a bit more rugged, going up and down a hill in the forest, and back out by the memorials. The last one is a short trail by the river.

Since this park is so small, and the morning we visited was so cold, we did not spend too much time here, but it was still a surprisingly nice experience.

Walnut Point is a nice park to walk around or to go boating on the lake, but is probably best for people who live in Champaign who want to get away for a little bit. Lincoln Trail Homestead’s most important and interesting feature are the memorials that talk about the president. But even without that, this would be a nice spot to easily access nature, and is very beginner friendly.