Hows my little Shawnee visitor?

Pretty much since we moved down to Illinois we have always wanted to check out the Carbondale area, thanks to one of my old room mates in college. He told me of hills, trees, and places to climb and hike. Since we moved here we learned that both southern Illinois and Indiana are home to a host of different wineries. After plenty of our customers at work have told me about winery hopping on the Shawnee Hills wine trail we decided that it was high time we check out the camping and the wine.

Our first night there we stayed at the Von Jakob (pronounced yakob) Winery/Brewery/B&B it was a nice little spot and it was great to start the day at a winery that made some fantastic wine!

For the rest of the day we got our campsite setup at Giant City State park and hiked all of the short trials in the park. Laura and I were both pretty excited to be wandering along cliffs and hills amongst vast expanses of trees.

We both brought our swimsuits so that we could find a spot in the lake to swim in. We decided against swimming here though.

Illinois for whatever reason thinks prohibition is a good idea and has reinstated it at all of the state parks. Except at this one you can enjoy alcoholic beverages in the summer only...ridiculous? Yes.

Our campsite came with a small leash, using it and wine I was able to keep Laura from scampering off out of my sight.

The next day we decided we should hit as many wineries as possible. We found out from Von Jakob that Big Muddy Brewing was close by so we started off there with a very healthy tasting and tour with the owner. We stopped by a total of eight places, Big Muddy, Kite Hill, Pamona, Hickory Ridge, Owl Creek, Star View, Blue Sky, and Rustle Hill. I loved driving all around the area because we were zipping through, trees, over hills, around fun little cuves and bends. Our favorite stops were Pamona and Blue Sky Vineyards, they were both so relaxing locations which were unique in their own way, oh, and the wine was too. 

Pamona was built on a hill and the backside looked into the woods.

So peaceful!

Cheers!

Our last day we decided to take a hike into the little grand canyon of Illinois. It was a really nice little hike full of cliffs and waterfalls. We even managed to get lost for a little while due to a giant lack of signage.

I took this photo thinking it was a nice dried waterfall picture, not knowing this was also our trail back to the car.

We had a great time in southern Illinois! I would recommend a visit here to anyone who wants a nice weekend getaway, there are tons of B&B's, wineries, and nature to make anyone happy. We are planning on going back again someday to check out a different place to camp and some of the other wineries that we missed. Want to join us?