Last weekend I walked the Wauponsee Trail to Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. I started from the Manhattan Metra station, which unfortunately only has stops Monday through Friday (the Wauponsee trail can be found on the other side of the Manhattan Metra Station parking lot across from the actual station). If a person wanted to walk the trail on a weekend they could start in Joliet. I walked a total of about 45 miles in about 40 hours. I went from the Manhattan Metra station on Friday afternoon to the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. I then walked the perimeter of the Prairie around to pick up the Wauponsee trail again near Symerton, IL and walked back along the trail to the Joliet Metra station on Sunday. The trails in Midewin are very interested because there are many bunkers and various features left over from the time when it was actually the biggest ammunition factory in the world.

Last Sunday I took the Rock Island Metra to Joliet to explore the Illinois and Michigan Canal. My long term goal is to walk most if not all of the canal path, but this weekend I set the modest goal of walking from the Joliet Metra to Lockport's Dellwood Park. Along the way I detoured through the Joliet Iron Works ruins, which are no more than a 20 minute walk through downtown Joliet from the Metra Station. The Joliet Iron Works ruins are a developed historical site, with explanatory signs that give the history of the various parts of the site. I found the explanations and history to be interesting and I came away from the site wanting to know more about it. The industrial ruins have a post-apocalyptic quality to them, like they are what remains from some kind of futuristic robot war that destroyed humanity. I spent a couple of hours walking around the site, reading the signs and taking pictures.

Last weekend I took the Green Line to the Garfield Park Conservatory. It is well worth a visit. The patio behind the Conservatory is a nice place to sit and read. In the last few months I have visited the Lincoln Park Conservatory and the Oak Park Conservatory as well. Like the Oak Park Conservatory, the Garfield Park Conservatory has a Desert Room, which would be nice to visit during Winter. Here are some photos from my visit:

http://picasaweb.google.com/thomas.garman/GarfieldParkConservatory?feat=...

This weekend I walked to Fermilab. I was motivated by a desire to see the Buffalo preserve in the context of a restored Prairie. It is very easy to walk to Fermilab from the Geneva Metra, but it is not easy to walk from Fermilab to the West Chicago Metra station. Here are some photos from my walk:

http://picasaweb.google.com/thomas.garman/Fermilab?feat=directlink

On May 25th I visited the Chicago Botanic Garden. The walk to the Garden along the Lake Cooke road from the Braeside Metra is very easy (down a street with a sidewalk). My motive for going to the Botanic Garden was to visit their Prairie Preserve.

Here are some photos from my trip:

http://picasaweb.google.com/thomas.garman/ChicagoBotanicGarden?feat=dire...