Lake Murphysboro State Park

The final day of our longest trip to date took us to Lake Murphysboro State Park. This park is 5 hours and 30 minutes south of Chicago, or about 20 minutes west of Carbondale. After a crazy few days, it was really nice to go back to basics in a way, with a really nice forest path with some really pretty lake views.

Although there has been evidence found on site for Native American people from the old Woodland and Paleolithic cultures, by the 1800s there were no longer settlements in the immediate area. Interest in this area as a recreational site started in the 1930s, and Illinois purchased the land in 1948. The lake itself was built in 1950.

We arrived at the park early on a Wednesday morning in April. The trail starts near the campsite, but before heading there we stopped at the main parking lot closest to the lake for some photos. There were a lot of people there that morning, including a group of kids on a field trip, and what looked like a large family out on a morning fishing trip/picnic.

After taking a few lake photos, we went over to the campground to start our hike. The only trail option on the AllTrails app is the Lake Murphysboro Loop, which we were a little disappointed to find out that it wasn’t a loop encircling the lake, or even that it didn’t stay close to the lake for longer. However, it was still a really nice walk through the woods just as everything was starting to bloom.

The trail is just shy of 2 miles, and is listed as easy. It is pretty hilly, and the further into the forest you get, the less well defined the trail gets. I think that it is a decent trail for people just starting out, but it is certainly not accessible for people with mobility concerns.

We wound through the forest, up and down the hills, crossing several footbridges. There were parts of the trail where the lake was visible, and it was very pretty, but it didn’t come across well on camera. Despite this, we still had a great time walking around.

We decided to go a different direction with the business this time. Instead of featuring a winery or brewery, we opted instead to go to a local barbeque restaurant. 17th Street BBQ was recommended to us by someone we know, and after finding out more about it we knew we had to give it a shot. It has been named “Best Barbeque in Illinois” by the Food Network, just to name one of its accolades. Everything we ate was absolutely delicious, but the star of the show was their signature dry rub called Magic Dust. It made everything even better, and both of us agreed that the potato salad that came topped with it was randomly the best part of the meal.

Lake Murphysboro is yet another park that delivered exactly the right atmosphere to finish a hiking trip with. The lake was beautiful, and the trails winding through the woods do have a lot of up and down to them, but it isn’t overwhelming. It’s a great park to go to for a slower morning where all you want to do is get outside.

This hiking trip was really something special. We visited 13 parks in 6 days, which is a new record for us. We are so grateful that this project has grown and we’ve been able to continue for this long. When we first started, we knew that eventually we would have to expand into longer trips, but there was no way we could have known that they would be this rewarding. We never would have expected how many amazing places there are all over the state.