The second clean up event for the Illinois Park Project was at Beaver Dam State Park near Carlinville, Illinois. This park is only about an hour from where I live, but I had never been here before! A small group of us gathered in the main parking lot and then hit the trail.

Just as soon as we started to hike, we were stopped by two park maintenance workers. I was worried at first, but they were so nice! They asked if they could take our picture and thanked us many times for helping clean up the park. What a great experience!

We first hiked around the north side of Beaver Dam Lake. I really enjoyed the peacefulness of the lake. The bright green trees contrasted with the sparkling blue lake.

There was not too much trash around the lake so we decided to take the trail up towards the picnic area. The trail then lead through the campground and I was really surprised at how full the campground was! I mean this park is kind of in the middle of nowhere so it was great to see people out and enjoying it!

In the above picture is Brisna & Shaila! Shaila is the trash go-getter of the group! She gets into some tight spaces! They drove almost 4 hours to be at the clean up! This summer, we are heading up north so they don’t have to drive so far!

We stopped for a quick snack break and then hiked the trails on the west side of the park. We ended up by the marsh which had a neat little overlook.

We finished up our hike and weighed our trash. We only picked up about 5 pounds of trash which is a good thing since it meant that the park was pretty clean overall!

One of the neat features of this state park is that it has a little restaurant! We enjoyed a light lunch and then said our good-byes.

Once again, I has so happy after this experience. I feel like my passion of hiking has aligned with my want to volunteer and the best part is that I can bring Ellie along! I love experiencing life with her by my side!

Below is a park map of Beaver Dam State Park and the trails that we hiked!