Cache River State Natural Area
Check pricesPaddle or hike through southern Illinois swamps to see bald cypress trees more than 1,000 years old, including the state champion.

Photo: Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.
Walk a short interpretive trail to the top of a bluff in Shawnee National Forest to see the remains of a Mississippian village and petroglyphs.
Millstone Bluff entrance road off Illinois Route 147, Pope County, IL · Glendale, IL
Millstone Bluff is a flat-topped bluff in the Shawnee National Forest where Woodland and later Mississippian people lived. An interpretive trail of almost a mile climbs to the top, where shallow depressions mark old house sites, and the bluff also holds a stone box cemetery and rock art with thunderbirds, turkey tracks and a cross-in-circle design. There is no fee. The trailhead has a vault toilet but no drinking water, so bring your own.
The closest stops to Millstone Bluff, ordered by straight-line distance.
Paddle or hike through southern Illinois swamps to see bald cypress trees more than 1,000 years old, including the state champion.
16 mi awaySwitch it up: Sports & Outdoors
Follow a quarter-mile sandstone trail across the bluffs to rock formations like Camel Rock and views over the Shawnee Hills.
19 mi awaySwitch it up: Sports & Outdoors
Walk the Ohio River bank at Illinois's first state park, where French and American forts once stood, and see Native American artifacts in the visitor center.
22 mi awaySwitch it up: Sports & Outdoors
Walk between towering sandstone bluffs on the Giant City Nature Trail, try rock climbing or a trail ride, and eat at a 1930s CCC stone lodge.
29 mi awaySwitch it up: Sports & Outdoors
Walk into a 55-foot-wide cave in the Ohio River bluffs that once hid river pirates, then take in the view from the lodge on the cliffs above.
29 mi awaySwitch it up: Sports & Outdoors
Hike the steep, wooded ridges of the Ozark Hills in southern Illinois, with spring wildflowers, CCC stone shelters and backcountry camping.
36 mi awaySwitch it up: Sports & Outdoors