midewin national tallgrass prairie

Sometimes the only issue with doing road trips in the winter is you miss amazing things like this!!! We will come back and visit the prairie & visitors center when the snow and bitter cold are GONE!!!

A great program of events to put the prairie's role in history in perspective and to enhance the need to preserve it.

I am an active bird watcher and so this place is a common stop for me! This area was once the area for producing ammunition, now a quiet refuge. Lots of space, multiple trails, excellent center, and an area that hosts bird species not otherwise seen in this clime. If you have any connection at all to the Illiana highway seekers, KEEP YOUR PAWS OFF MIDEWIN!!! Build your highway someplace else!!

This 20,000 acre area was once an amunition factory since World War II. Now the National Forest Service is in the process of restoring it to a beautiful Tallgrass Prairie. The visitors center on Highway 53 provides an overview of the area, animals and plants. However, the real beauty is in walking the trails and seeing all the wild flowers. If you only have an hour go to the River Road and see the Prairie Seed Beds where they are growing more flowers to keep populating the prairie. Be sure to take water and sunscreen if you go during this hot summer.

Remember reading about the millions of buffalo that used to cover the plains of the midwest? They lived in tall grass prairie. Illinois used to be nothing but prairie. Anyone who's been to Chicago can tell you that there is no more prairie. But wait!There is!45 minutes south of Chicago is (was) the Joliet Army Ammunition Arsenal. The United States Army produced ammuntion here for many years. As is the case in most Army posts, much of the land was left intact, while development went berserk all around it. In 1996, the Army decommissioned the Arsenal and gave it to the US Forest Service for restoration. The Army and the Forest Service have been restoring it to its original tall grass prairie state since then.As always, environmental restoration takes time, and many years of labor, but the efforts are paying off as we speak. Now we have "Midewin National Tall Grass Prairie." It is the first national tall grass prairie in the country. Over 9000 acres are now open to the public. One may hike, bike or ride horses (which, I hope, someday to do) over 34 miles of trails. Some trails are restricted to hiking only. These are the ones where you'll see the most birds. Dogs are allowed but must be kept leashed at all times. Please don't let them off the leash, most grassland birds are ground nesters.Oh, there's cattle, too, helping keep the grass down. Remember the rangeland rule: Leave the gate the way you found it: if it's open, leave it open, if you find a gate shut, leave it shut. And it is lovely. Someone did a whole lot of thinking on what we birders wanted to see, and they are accomplishing it. Of the several trails we hiked, the best was the Henslow Loop, where one can hopefully see Henslow's sparrows. We didn't see those, but we did see Eastern kingbirds, bobolinks, dickcissels, indigo buntings, grasshopper sparrows, and eastern meadowlarks. That path is mowed rather than paved or a horrible boardwalk. I was surrounded by the tall grass, hearing the birds sing, and it was as if I was back in the land-and time-of the buffalo. I half expected to see a band of Native Americans come riding over the gently sloping terrain. I had to shorten my view, so that I could ignore the truck traffic and the sight of Chicago in the far distance. But that's the amazing part. You can leave Chicago and in less than an hour, be on the prairie. And that was just for starters...they promise to make even more improvements and extend the prairie as far as they can. Birders: Go! Take water, your nocs and a camera, because you'll bag some lifers. Take some tick repellant, too...we picked up a couple. But do go. Help make Midewin into what it promises to be: a wildlife and environmental gem.There are portapotties and picnic tables at the trailheads, not on the trails themselves. Don't forget your water. I repeat...it gets windy and dry in the sunshine there, you will need water. But DO GO.