Saline County SFWA & Sahara Woods SRA

Our second annual “Big April Hiking Trip” kicked off with two parks that were on the way to Metropolis, IL, which was our home base for this year’s trip. Saline County State Fish and Wildlife Area in Equality, IL was the first, and Sahara Woods State Recreation Area, just outside Harrisburg, was the second. Saline County SFWA is 6 hours south of Chicago, or an hour north of Metropolis, IL. Sahara Woods SRA is half an hour west of Saline County, with similar distances to Chicago and Metropolis.

While we were planning this particular trip, we realized that in addition to the 9 state properties that made sense to do this year, there was one other hiking destination that we could not skip. Within the Shawnee National Forest is the Garden of the Gods.

The Garden of the Gods is one of the most unique hiking areas in Illinois. There are picturesque bluffs that you can hike on top of, and look out at incredible panoramic views of the forest. The interpretive trail is less than half a mile, but there are a lot of steps and uneven ground that you should be aware of. Despite this, we consider this to be a must visit destination for hikers. Once you are finished with the main trail, there are other places you can hike, but we had to keep to our plan to visit two state properties that day.

Satisfied with the start of our day, we decided to head to Saline County SFWA next. The main attraction here is the 105 acre lake, which seemed like a perfect spot to spend a morning fishing. There are picnic facilities all around, and we saw a decent number of folks camping as well. Additionally, there is a statue of the Chief Tecumseh within the park.

This park does have some trails, but there isn’t any information about them on the AllTrails app, and when we got there we decided that walking along the lake would give us a better idea of what the park was about. This was a mistake. After a few minutes of walking here, we came upon an area marked off with a stretch of caution tape, marking a tree stump that had a very loud, very active beehive. We didn’t even get that close to the hive itself, but since bees don’t have a concept of caution tape they saw fit to fly all around us, deafening us with the buzzing. We ran away from that situation, testing our sprinting limits in the process. After that, we decided to leave immediately.

Using the 30 minute drive to the next park to calm down after the bee encounter, we arrived at Sahara Woods. This park does not have hiking, and is primarily used for Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) driving, as well as a lake for fishing. We don’t have experience with OHV driving, so we can’t speak to the quality of the facilities offered. The lake seemed very peaceful, and had cypress trees in the water. After that, we decided to wrap up for the day.

The first business we wanted to highlight was Depot Coffee and Donuts. This coffee shop is in El Dorado, IL, and we stopped here first before continuing on to the parks. They have a lot of options, including a very refreshing lemonade for a morning that was a bit on the warm side.

The second business was Clad and Cordon Vineyard in Creal Springs. This winery is run by two sisters, who were very fun to talk to. The wine options were mostly classic flavors, a decent amount of fruit wines as well. We had a really good time here, and would definitely recommend this as an option for folks hiking in the area.

Saline County SFWA may be a good place to fish and hike, but unfortunately for us it will be impossible to separate the park from our experience with the bees, so we can’t really recommend it. On the other hand, Sahara Woods SFA is definitely more unique in what it offers, and is a good option for those OHV drivers, but if you are specifically looking for hiking a different park would be best. Although Garden of the Gods is not a state park, it is the must visit destination of this area. We would highly recommend it to most people, with the caveat that the elevation would be difficult for people with mobility issues.