Great River Trail -Savanna, Illinois

The Great River Trail starts to the left of the Savanna Train Car Museum parking area off Broaderick Dr. It's an ugly beginning with an 8-foot chainlink fence on both sides. To the left is what appears to be something like a railyard, and to the right is a storage lot for camping trailers. 

The bridge over the railroad tracks in Savanna.

 I have never seen railroad tracks cross each other. This is called Savanna Diamond Railroad Crossing.

Once you cross the railroad tracks, you enter the nature portion of the trail. To the left, you view Bowens Lake, and to the right, there is the Plum River. Eventually, the river takes a big bend and curves, and you cross the river over this bridge.

 Ducks swimming in the Plum River.

Bowens Lake.

This is where I ended my walk at the observation platform overlooking Spring Lake. A half-mile beyond this point, the trail followed along a highway.

Beaver Dam State Park - Beaver Dam Loop and Marsh Trails

The Beaver Dam State Park is in Illinois, about an hour Northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. The best way to describe this park is it's a 750-acre oasis amongst thousands of acres of dairy farmland. The nearest town to be able to buy supplies in is Carlinville, 8.5 miles north of the park. The first thing you run into is a Walmart just outside of town, and it is the only grocery store for many residents for miles around.

I accidently reserved the youth group camp sites where the Boy Scouts usually stay. It was nice to have a huge space all to myself  until I discovered I was paying $120 for three nights. I was able to get an $80 refund and still camp there without having to move.

The Beaver Dam Loop Trail was a trail that followed the lake shoreline. Most of the path looked like this.

A nice pic of Beaver Dam Lake. Most of the view of the lake is absurd with trees.

 An opening where you can set on a bench and take in the view of the lake.

This is the beginning of the Marsh Trail. It starts off a two-track.

An observation platform overlooking the marsh. Great for bird watching.

This gives you a good look at the marsh and the gross green algae. Mosquitos were ferocious.

A small boardwalk navigates hikers through a wet low ground area.

A bridge over a creek feeding into the swamp.

Sounds of the swamp

Watershed Pond Loop - Edwardsville, Illinous

The name of the trail or the place doesn't sound too inspiring, but this was a real pleasurable nature walk. It is a designated wetland teeming with wildlife.

One of the most exciting parts of the walk was this raised concrete walk that took you through the heart of the swamp and cattails.

There was quite a diversity in the paths. Some were asphalt, and others were crushed stone, and we were taking an offshoot trail which was simply a mowed area through tall grass, weeds, ferns, and flowers. I never figured out whether the tall skinny brown structure was for the birds or what?

With a view of a meadow and a raised platform, you can sit, abserving the wildlife a bird watching.