Shawnee National Forest's Garden of the Gods
April 25, 2007
We did our morning constitutional at Mill Stone Archeological site in the 
Shawnee National Forest. We hiked and read exhibit signs about the Mississippian Period and
the people of that time hundreds of years ago. Will climbed around the rocks looking for Petroglyphs long gone. 
We saw the depressions that were once home and mounds that were gravesites. And we tried to stay out of the poison ivy growing everywhere.
Will saved a little turtle as we continued on highway 145. In Herod we stopped at the Shawnee National Forest headquarters (www.fs.fed.us/r9/shawnee). They had some beautiful quilts on display. 
We got directions to Garden of the Gods, 3300 acres of wilderness and drove there. The rock formations and cliffs are made of sandstone and are about 350 million years old.
The Observation trail was made of natural flagstone and lead to areas near the bluffs where there were outstanding views of the Shawnee Hills and the Garden of the Gods Wilderness. The Wilderness Act of 1964 created this area. The rock formations 
with names such as Anvil Rock, Devil’s Smokestack, Noah’ Ark and Camel Rock were very interesting.
We saw some great formations caused by iron deposits too. 
We did both the Observation Trail and Wilderness Boundary Trail so we got our walking in today.
We stayed at the Pharaoh Picnic area for lunch and some relax time then continued to get some miles under our tires. We arrived in Mount Vernon located on an oxbow of the Ohio River. We watched as a tug rearranged some barges, found the library and did some internetting then continued to Evansville where we stopped at the Waldorf. After shopping we watched A Fish Called Wanda and headed for the bed.
We did our morning constitutional at Mill Stone Archeological site in the 
Shawnee National Forest. We hiked and read exhibit signs about the Mississippian Period and
the people of that time hundreds of years ago. Will climbed around the rocks looking for Petroglyphs long gone. 
We saw the depressions that were once home and mounds that were gravesites. And we tried to stay out of the poison ivy growing everywhere.
Will saved a little turtle as we continued on highway 145. In Herod we stopped at the Shawnee National Forest headquarters (www.fs.fed.us/r9/shawnee). They had some beautiful quilts on display. 
We got directions to Garden of the Gods, 3300 acres of wilderness and drove there. The rock formations and cliffs are made of sandstone and are about 350 million years old.
The Observation trail was made of natural flagstone and lead to areas near the bluffs where there were outstanding views of the Shawnee Hills and the Garden of the Gods Wilderness. The Wilderness Act of 1964 created this area. The rock formations 
with names such as Anvil Rock, Devil’s Smokestack, Noah’ Ark and Camel Rock were very interesting.
We saw some great formations caused by iron deposits too. 
We did both the Observation Trail and Wilderness Boundary Trail so we got our walking in today.
We stayed at the Pharaoh Picnic area for lunch and some relax time then continued to get some miles under our tires. We arrived in Mount Vernon located on an oxbow of the Ohio River. We watched as a tug rearranged some barges, found the library and did some internetting then continued to Evansville where we stopped at the Waldorf. After shopping we watched A Fish Called Wanda and headed for the bed.
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