Interesting/quirky/off-the-beaten-path stuff to see in non-Chicagoland IL?

[JeanMilburn]

oH

[JoePO]

Originally Posted by Avondalist

There is also a herd of bison at Fermilab outside Batavia. Fermilab is an interesting destination in itself.

Closed to the public until further notice. I don't think we'll reopen this summer.

[SonySegaTendo617]

Originally Posted by ILTXwhatnext

I haven't been to Galena in a long time, but it's supposedly very happening these days. The home of Ulysses S. Grant is there.

https://www.visitgalena.org/

You could also try driving Route 66. They claim a place in Springfield was where the corn dog was invented.
https://www.enjoyillinois.com/plan-y.../view/route-66

East St. Louis has a geyser that shoots water as high as the famed Gateway Arch across the river.
https://www.theparkwithaview.com/gatewaygeyser

But water isn't the only thing shooting there (it also has a high crime rate, in some years the worst in the USA).

Not sure if there's anything that'd draw anyone into East Saint Louis, except for the casino, and a nearby overlook across the river(and just south of the casino) looking back towards Saint Louis. Anyway down there and not far from EStL, I really like Cahokia Mounds. Which was once a really huge Native American settled city, before the US became a country. Belleville as I remember had a drive in movie theater (Skyview? I forget it's name), and it's downtown(it is a county seat town) is nice as I remember.

If you were to do a roadtrip east on I-70(like say towards Indianapolis and other places), the town of Casey(between Effingham, and Terre Haute, IN) has installed a bunch of oversized statues in its downtown that are cool to see. And if you were to go towards like Carbondale(where SIU's main campus is), Murphysboro, etc, Shawnee National Forest is nearby and I presume would have a lot of hiking trails.

[stepka]

I’m putting in a vote for southern IL...there’s a wine trail, hiking trails everywhere, lakes with water activities, and charming little towns but a very low population. There are rock formations here that would rival anything I’ve seen on this earth and I’m pretty well traveled. There’s the Little Grand Canyon and The Garden of the Gods and route 146 is very scenic. The best part for me is that it’s very green here and moss everywhere. My favorite little town here is hippie themed Makanda, with its tiny little downtown area and it will soon get famous because the 2024 solar eclipse will pass over it again, as did the 2017 eclipse, so there will be big excitement in the area and most of the B&Bs are booked already.