Giant City State Park
Check pricesWalk 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.

Photo: Nyttend, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.
A railroad museum in a restored 1903 Illinois Central passenger station, with a locomotive and caboose on site.
Carbondale, IL
Station Carbondale runs a railroad museum inside a brick passenger depot built in 1903 for the Illinois Central Railroad. The group formed in 1995 to restore the building and preserve the history of railroads in Carbondale. Visitors can walk through the displays inside the station, which tell how rail shaped the city. Outside, a caboose and a retired GP11 diesel locomotive are on display, and groups can arrange tours of them by appointment. The displays share the building with the local Main Street program and the Chamber of Commerce, so the rooms are open when those offices are open.
The closest stops to The Carbondale Depot Museum, ordered by straight-line distance. A few more like it, plus some different kinds of fun so you can build a full day.
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.
8.7 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.
17 mi awaySwitch it up: Sports & Outdoors
Paddle or hike through southern Illinois swamps to see bald cypress trees more than 1,000 years old, including the state champion.
29 mi awaySwitch it up: Sports & Outdoors
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.
34 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing
An outdoor pioneer village in Harrisburg that shows how early settlers in Saline County lived.
36 mi awayMore like this
Follow a quarter-mile sandstone trail across the bluffs to rock formations like Camel Rock and views over the Shawnee Hills.
46 mi awaySwitch it up: Sports & Outdoors