The Giant City

April 5, 2024 – Day 20

Giant City State Park, Makanda Illinois

Giant City State Park is named after the “Giant City” which is a collection sandstone that has split, eroded, and then slid down the hill. This leaves some pretty cool paths through the vertical walls. We asked about the hike, since it was listed as “Moderate.” We like the ones listed as easy. The ranger told us that they have taken pre-schoolers on the hike so we decided “Why not!” and set out to do it today. Why? Today is the first nice day. We’ve had heavy rains, and on and off rains, and drizzle, and just overcast. (susan: and don’t forget the wind!) It has been cold all week, flirting with freezing at night and just about hitting the mid 50s during the day. It feels cold when there’s wind even if it’s low 50s. We’ve been wearing our winter puffer jackets!

The path wasn’t paved, just the entrance was paved. Most of the surface was gravel but there were some rocky sections. It was hilly in spots, but they always put a bench at the top of the hills.

The first thing we noticed was these strange holes in the rock.

Most of them were about as big as your fist. Paul’s guess was that there were rounded rocks caught up in the sandstone, which then eroded and the rocks fell out. The only problem with this theory is that the ice age glaciers stopped about a mile away from Makanda, and rounded rocks usually come from glacial action or running water.

We soon entered the “city” portion.

This was a very cool place to walk around in. People have visited these formations for hundreds of years. And of course they have defaced them for hundred of years.

Next up was Balancing Rock, which isn’t really named correctly. We’d call it “Wedged in Place” rock.

We were near the exit now, and blessedly going downhill when we came across this cool undercut section.

On the way out we heard three life birds, but couldn’t find them; the Louisiana Waterthrush, Carolina Chickadee and the Northern Parula.

We really want to see that Parula! We’ll go back to try and find them, or just do some birding in the park.