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Little Grand Canyon

 

In my younger years when my boys were young teens I used to say the Little Grand Canyon was my favorite local hike. Now it is more difficult for me and not so much my favorite. This hiking trail is located in the Shawnee National Forest.

This trail is in Southern Illinois near Pomona. It is not hard to drive too and has a lot of parking available. There are two teirs to the parking and most people miss the entrance to the trail from the lower parking lot and head down the upper parking lot entrance near the bathrooms. When I was first shown this trail by the boy scouts, we started on the lower entrance and that is the way I prefer to go. I cannot imagine hiking the loop from the other direction, but many people do. I think it is more difficult the other direction because that canyon would be more difficult to climb down than up.

That last mile (or first if you do it the other direction) seems to go on forever. I am still not convinced it is only a mile even now that I have hiked it again with the right mindset. The entire trail is said to be 3 miles.

From Cape Girardeau, Missouri, cross the bridge to Illinois and head north on Highway 3. Turn right onto Highway 146. Turn North on Highway 27 towards the winery trail (yes, we are familiar with it!) passing Alto Vinyards and Von Jacob and turn offs to many other wineries. Go 163. miles and turn left onto Etherton Road. Travel 2.5 miles to Poplar Ridge Road which is at a 3 way intersection. Turn left onto Poplar Ridge Road for 1 mile and continue onto Hickory Ridge Road. Travel another 2.3 miles to Little Grand Canyon Road.

Many people will take the lower entrance because it is shorter to reach the canyon, then walk down the canyon and back up it. If you do not want to do the whole trail or are on a time limit, this is a great option. Taking the upper entrance a mile to the overlook is a bit underwhelming to me for the effort.

I have also seen people who have hiked to the canyon and not realized they could walk down it and turned around and went back without the whole experience. Do not do that!

One of the most awesome things about the canyons are the natural steps. From a few like this one you would think it would be difficult to get down the canyon, but then as you pay attention more, you will see the natural steps. Sometimes they are on one side and sometimes the other, but they always present themselves.

Water does run through the canyon and the rock is slippery, so it is important to stress careful steps. Be sure your footing is secure before lifting the other foot.

After going down each elevation, take time to look back where you have been and forward where you are going as the views change with each scene. I feel so many rush through this hike without appreciating the fullness of it.

The section of the first canyon is a bit intimidating as there is a small ledge to the left of a hole that must be walked upon. However, wh at a delight to find natural hand grips along the ledge above. It looks more intimidating that it feels when walking across.

This is from the bottom of the first canyon looking up. When I first did this trail, the trail to the second caynon was hard to find. There was no sign and many people missed it. Now there is a helpful sign. Back in the 1990's the trail across the bottomlands was overgrown and hard to find. It was quite the adventure as no one was around and you had to hope you were following the trail. Of course, the trail follows the bluffs, so you would never really get lost even if you got off trail. Every once in a while, you would see the trail and know you were okay.

 

Today in September 2020 there were so many people on the trail due to Covid-19 and social distancing that the trail was very apparent. It is good that people are getting out and about outdoors.

Along the bottomlands is this waterfall. The water was not flowing so much on this hike, but it does flow more during the Spring.

There are amazing 300 foot bluffs along the bottomlands which are quite amazing (as can be seen in the video above).

The second canyon is not as exciting as the first, but it still holds its own characteristic and adventure. Once again, the natural steps are apparent. There is one place where the step up (or down) is quite a distance. I have to use my knees to get up up. It is more a climb than a step. There is a drop off below it, so great care should be taken.

There are areas where the steps are actually large root systems. That is a cool feature.

This is the view from the overlook. You can go down the trail from the overlook, but I have never gone down there as I am always exhausted by the time I reach this part of the trail. The Big Muddy River is below and it is a tributary of the Mississippi River. I understand there is a cave like structure on the side of that bluff.

The view itself in its entiretly is awesome, but then again a little underwhelming from other views I have seen without the hiking effort.

 

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The below are photos from a June 6, 2001 hike. This is not the first time we hiked this trail, but it is the first year I took digital photos. I hope to find more photos when we scan in photos.

These are select photos of this trip reduced in size for the internet.

I hope you enjoy these.

There used to be a bench at the overlook, but in 2020 it was gone.

 

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The below photos are from a hike in May 2005. These are not all of the photos! I have selected some for the website and I have reduced the size for the internet. We took the boy scout troop to introduce them to this hike. I like how having people in the photos gives persepective to the size of the canyon. Enjoy!

A snake in the tree!

This is a favorite photo of mine as it shows perspective well. This is taken at the bottom of the first canyon.

They found frogs in 2005 too, just like we did in 2020.

This is the waterfall on the trail through the bottoms.

This is beginning to enter the second caynon going up.

This is that difficult area that I mentioned above with the 2020 set of photos.

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright Cheryl Rutledge-Brennecke
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