The boys and I took on the Jingle Hike Challenge again this year and took advantage of all the nice days in December and found every single bell this year!!!
Cahokia Mounds State historic site: We go here often, this was a quick easy bell to find
Engelmann Farm Park: I used to walk the dog here pretty often but hadn't been for some time. The boys really liked this large loop trail and want to come back
Gateway East Trestle Trail: This one was in a bit of a run down area....and we all felt a bit uneasy about leaving the van. The trail was nice but we found it and go back asap.
Waterloo Reservoir trail: this was the first of 3 bells we took a Friday to find. It was a pretty park and we hurried a bit through it. It would be fun to come back sometime
Piney Creek Ravine Nature Hike: This was definitely our most adventurous hike. It was a bit like stepping back in time. We found ourself in the middle of nowhere in beautiful ravines and even ancient cave drawings.
Kinkaid Lake Trail: last one of the day. It was a fun day and wow we covered a lot of back country southern Illinois roads.
Bluff Park Preserve: kind of just a woods off of an older Belleville neighborhood. But the woods turned out to have a nice trail and some nice educational things had been added
Arlington Wetlands: Another really cool place we never new about just down the road in Collinsville. We will definitely come back in the spring
Highland Silver Lake Park: Yet another really cool park we had never been too! Beautiful trail around the lake
SIUE Nature Trail: This was our longest and maybe most frustrating. It was a 3 mile loop trail, we went left to start the loop and didn't find the bell till about 2.9 miles in....if we had only gone right. I quite enjoyed the hike but certain members of our group felt a large part of our day had been "wasted".
Wilson Park: pretty simple bell to find at a city park in Granite City....not much to write home about here.
Lewis and Clark State Historic Site: Last but not least. We could see this bell from the parking lot. So not much hiking. There was a small museum I would like to go back and check out.
Overall we had a lot of fun, and discovered some cool new areas we had never been to before but will definitely be back too!!
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