Recently a pal on Instagram pointed me in the direction of Forest Glen Nature Preserve in Vermilion County, Illinois. How this place had not already been on my radar is a mystery. I grew up in a house, on the top of a ridge, leading down to a crick, leading into a creek, leading into the Illinois River. Walking down steep embankments covered in layers of decaying leaves, underneath a complete canopy was as easy as walking a little too far off the deck. I felt absolutely at home at Forest Glen Nature Preserve, which traverses cricks, creeks, and ridges leading into the Vermilion River.
Forest Glen is located a little south of Danville, IL. Practically on the Indiana border. There’s plenty here for day hikers and RV tent campers to enjoy, but where this park really shines is its backpacking trail. Managed by Vemilion County Forest Preserve District Correct Name since 1966, this 11-mile backpacking loop is very rugged, but probably one of the most rewarding hikes in Illinois.
As a natural born flatlander when I heard this hike was “very rugged” I thought “okay, sure, maybe by prairie standards.” Past Lindsay was wrong. This hike is not easy. If you plant to hike it, you should be in good physical condition, prepared for frequent elevation changes, ready to recover from sliding down muddy embankments, and prepared to cross over creeks on a bridge that is just one narrow board. Oh, and there’s that vertical climb by the waterfall bridge.
The County requests that backpackers register a week in advance. The campground at East Camp is located 7.5 miles from the trailhead at Lorna K. Nosis Visitor Center. There are five sites in East Camp and during the good weather they will book up. I made my reservation about four days in advance by emailing the visitors office and asking nicely. Luckily, they had a spot available for me. We arrived on Friday, May 7, hiked to East Camp on Saturday and hiked out on Sunday during a torrential thunderstorm. That might explain why I could snag a campsite. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If you go to Forest Glen to just enjoy the tent campground and do a few day hikes, you are in for a treat. This campground is beautiful, spacious, set back against a stunning ravine where white tail deer are easy to spot. There is a loading lot, with a 20-minute limit, but cars are asked to be parked further up the road. Water is available at a tap, near-ish the pit toilet, and the RVs are located out of sight and sound. For my money, it’s Site 11 all the way. Look at that view. It’s a tremendously peaceful spot. Every site has a fire ring and a picnic table.
Saturday morning we packed up camp, left our car at the visitor center parking lot, and hiked 7.5 miles to East Camp. The landscape first follows low-lying marshlands where you’ll easily see turtles sunning themselves on fallen logs, and an abundance of birds. Following the red and white blazes that mark the backpacking loop, you’ll eventually move west, and follow the ridges overlooking creek beds. The trails are well marked, and well maintained for the first day’s hike. There is a little bit of creek hopping, lush meadows, abundant wildflowers and relative protection from the sun when the canopy is leafed out. (Though, you should always guard against ticks by wearing a hat or bandana over your head.)
Group Camp is about halfway to East Camp, and it’s where we stopped for lunch in a sunny field. About two miles after that is where the trail finally meets the Vermilion River. This stunning spot features a sandstone outcropping with shale that resembles the pages of a book. Except it’s an ancient sea bed. It’s probably full of fossils, but as Forest Glen is a designated Illinois Nature Preserve its rocks are protected from me poking around in there to look for fossils. Probably you too, sorry. It’s the law. If possible, I think this would be a beautiful lunch spot, you just have to hold out for a few miles past Group Camp.
The trail follows the Vermilion River for quite a ways after that and it’s easily the most scenic part of the trail. It’s also where the endless flow of water over millennia tends to start flexing on us. There’s this bridge, just after a curve in the trail, after you see a rock outcropping in the river itself. To get to the bridge is a descent about six feet down a steep slope, and across a bridge over a waterfall. The sandstone here is magnificent. You will probably use the sandstone to help you climb up what is essentially a mud-and-rock ladder at the other side of the bridge. Straight up. No joke. I took it on hands and knees because I am not tall.
After that, you’re really just one big, steep climb away from East Camp. There’s a small stream at the base of this climb, but it isn’t too painful to set up camp, and then come fetch water. East Camp is nice, at the top of a ridge and relatively protected under a canopy of youngish trees. There is a pit toilet that some previous campers had not treated with respect prior to my arrival. I also hiked out quite a bit of their trash. I wish them nothing but wet socks for their next fifty hikes.
Site 3, where we stayed, was probably the flattest and most spacious. Site 1 on the edge of the ridge is probably the most private, but it can be windy. Sites 2 and 4 are closer together and 5 looked sloped. Each site has a picnic table and fire pit.
We rolled into bed at the standard backpacker time of 9 p.m. which is jut about when the storm started. I’ve camped in storms before, they don’t bother me. My stuff mostly stayed dry, and once you’re hiking in the rain there’s nothing else to do but hike in the rain. I find peace in that.
We started the hike out around 8:30 the next morning, when the rain had subsided a bit. The rain did not stop until well after I hiked out. Day 2 of that trail is about half the length, and twice as hard as Day 1 is. For sure. There’s much more ascending and descending, the trail is closer to the edge of a steep drop off at points, and the bridges get a little … scarier, in places.
Hiking out in the pouring rain made everything much harder. All that lovely sandstone and shale I admired on Day 1? Well that’s why we’ve got all this thick clay in the soil. That clay is a slip’n’slide after 12 hours of pouring rain. I fell more times than I care to admit, but thankfully landed mostly on my butt. There was one bridge where I took it as slow as I could, facing sideways, because a single-plank of old, worn wood, hanging at a slight angle, had about a 5 foot drop beneath it. If you’re going to visit Forest Glen on a rainy day, be prepared for the slipperiest mud I have ever encountered.
You know you’ve hit the home stretch when you get to the fields. On one side, a still active farm shows you what Illinois did with all those magnificent prairies. On your other side, is a young prairie in the midst of restoration. It’s full of birds, flowers, low lying grasses, and waterfowl.
This was my first visit to Forest Glen but there is absolutely no way it will be my last.
