Gemini Giant
No admission feeSnap a photo with a fiberglass astronaut holding a rocket, a Route 66 landmark standing at a Wilmington park entrance.

Photo: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.
A roughly 1,300-acre Illinois state-managed lake in Grundy County that was first dug as a cooling pond.
Grundy County, IL
Heidecke Lake is a state fish and wildlife area in Grundy County, Illinois, covering about 1,300 acres. The water body was excavated as an artificial cooling pond to support the Collins Generating Station, a power plant that is no longer operating. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources manages the area as a state site for fish and wildlife. The official IDNR page for the site does not give visitor details specific to this lake, so hours, amenities, and admission cannot be confirmed from the pages provided.
The closest stops to Heidecke Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area, ordered by straight-line distance. A few more like it, plus some different kinds of fun so you can build a full day.
Snap a photo with a fiberglass astronaut holding a rocket, a Route 66 landmark standing at a Wilmington park entrance.
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