Giant City State Park

For our third day, we were so excited to be hitting a major milestone: our 75th park visit. We knew that we wanted to do something special, and so we decided to finally head to Giant City State Park, one of the most famous and anticipated parks. Giant City SP is located in Makanda, IL, a quick 20 minute drive from Carbondale, or a 5 hour and 40 minute drive from Chicago.

Giant City is one of the most well developed parks, and there are so many options of things to do here. Hiking is probably the main draw, with each trail offering something unique to visitors. We ended up walking on 3 different trails. Since this was our only park planned for the day, we really wanted to complete as much as we could.

We started by driving to the visitor center. We got there right at the time it was supposed to open, but it seemed like they were running a bit late, so we decided to circle back after some hiking.

Our first trail was the Devil’s Sandtable Nature Trail. This is a very quick hike, less than half a mile and can be completed in about half an hour. The feature that the trail is named after is the large, almost mushroom shaped rock formation towards the end of the hike. It is very striking, and looks so precarious. The rest of the trail is full of interesting rock bluffs, including a large rock shelter where you can hear water running underneath somewhere.

After finishing that quick but impressive trail, we headed to the Giant City Nature Trail. If you know anything about this park, it is most likely the rock formations on this trail. This was the trail that we considered non-optional when researching this park.

You start out on a very unassuming path through normal looking woods. After the quick payoff of the previous trail, we actually double checked to make sure we were on the right trail because of how unassuming it was. It is a one mile loop that will take you around and through these most famous rock formations. After a few minutes you see the first signs of these rocks.

When you see the first signs of bluffs, follow the trail to the right and keep going. At first you will probably think that they are underwhelming (especially compared to the Devil’s Sand Table), but if you keep going the trail weaves through more and more rocks until you get to the “city streets” that the park is known for.

Due to glacial activity 12,000 years ago, the bluffs have broken apart in such a straight manner that it feels man-made. They really look and feel like being in real city ruins. There is no other experience that even comes close to how unique it is. There are some parts of the trail with some stones protruding out that you have to walk on top of, and we had to slow down to get up them, but it is absolutely worth it to experience this. 

The one major downside to this park is the crowds. It isn’t nearly as bad as having to wait in line in the canyons at Starved Rock, but this park is famous enough that it attracts people who wouldn’t normally hike, and that may be a deterrent for some folks. We encountered two large groups very shortly into our hike. However, we ended up moving faster than them, and did not encounter them again, even when we stopped for 15 minutes to sit and have a granola bar. It seemed like they may have turned back and not actually gone through the section that the park is famous for. It was nice experiencing that area without large amounts of people, but it was surprising that they had come all that way just to not go through it. 

After you get through the city, the path goes back to a regular walk through the woods with just a few rock formations, but it is the perfect end to really process how impressive the whole experience was.

We headed back to the visitor center now that it was later in the morning. It’s a pretty nice visitor center with plenty of brochures (even ones for individual trails), and some nice exhibits about the history of the area. Our favorite was the terrarium with a snake named “the amazing Larry”.

Our final hiking stop of the day was the Trilium Trail. We unfortunately did not finish this trail, because of a combination of already completing a decent amount of moderate level hiking as well as the parking becoming questionable because of the number of people out that day. However, it was still a very beautiful walk, and I’m sure that if we were to visit again we would make finishing this one a priority. There are plenty of rock formations to see here as well, but this trail is actually known for its wildflowers. 

One more thing about Giant City State Park is that this park also allows rock climbing. Like Ferne Clyffe SP the previous day, there were plenty of people out that day doing just that, but it is very much for experienced climbers.

For this park, we decided to feature Giant City Lodge, instead of a brewery or winery. It is a working hotel that you can stay at, but they also have a well known restaurant that we decided to go to. We were told by a few different people to try their all-you-can-eat chicken dinner, and it did not disappoint.

Despite having a little bit of the crowd problem like Starved Rock, we would still wholeheartedly recommend this park to everyone. The groups of people did not become overwhelming when we were there (though it wouldn’t surprise us if they have capacity issues sometimes). But what this park has to offer is so different and stunning that it should be a destination for anyone who likes hiking at all.