Celebrating the Six-Year Anniversary of Nature in Chicagoland

BY ANDREW MORKES, FOUNDER OF NATURE IN CHICAGOLAND Today is the six-year anniversary of my blog, Nature in Chicagoland, and I'm so happy to have written more than 225 articles about the woods, wetlands, prairies, lakes, and other natural areas that make up Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana. I'm pleased that Nature in Chicagoland has …

14 Amazing National Park Service Destinations for Spring and Summer Road Trips

BY ANDREW MORKES, FOUNDER OF NATURE IN CHICAGOLAND Planning a spring or summer road trip? If so, here are 14 of my favorite National Park Service destinations to check out. Six are located in the Midwest. Carlsbad Caverns National Park (New Mexico): More than 120 caves. The park features the largest colony (estimated at about 400,000) …

Author and Professor Discusses the Magical Driftless Area

Flat. Boring. These are two common words that come to mind when people think of much of the Midwest. But there's a special place in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin that features limestone bluffs, rolling hills, wooded valleys, waterfalls, creeks, wetlands, rivers, caves, Native American Effigy Mounds, and rare ecosystems and plant and animal species. …

THE 10 MOST-POPULAR STORIES AT NATURE IN CHICAGOLAND IN OCTOBER 2019

Ghost stories of Chicago’s southwest suburbs and my own ghost story The wildest nature destination in Cook County The story of a 100-year-old home gobbled up by developers The only open-water quaking bog in Illinois 2,500 acres of rolling hills and towering cliffs above the confluence of the great Mississippi and Apple Rivers 8 places to …

4 National Park Service Destinations Within 0 to 220 Miles of Chicago

Have you ever visited a national park, monument, or other National Park Service property? If not, the Labor Day weekend is a great time to start. According to the NPS, “the National Park System covers more than 84 million acres and is comprised of 417 sites with at least 19 different designations. These include 129 …

Effigy Mounds National Monument: Massive Bears, Stunning Views, and Thousands of Years of Native American History

Photo courtesy of the National Park Service. Marching Bear Group. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service. Where: Northeastern Iowa. The monument is located three miles north of Marquette, Iowa, on Highway 76. Phone: 563/873-3491, ext. 123 (visitor center front desk) Web, Facebook Distance From City-Center Chicago: 220 miles Travel Notes: The historic river town of …

Celebrate National Park Week by Visiting a National Park—For Free!

The National Park Service (NPS) has partnered with the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America's national parks, to present National Park Week (NPW) from April 15 to 23, 2017. National Park Week is actually 9 days, but why quibble if we can enjoy two more days of celebrating what many call “America’s Greatest …