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Make family time unforgettable with 75 outdoor adventures across Illinois—designed to spark curiosity and inspire wonder.
Getting kids outdoors and active in nature provides a wealth of benefits. It boosts creativity, improves physical health, builds confidence, and fosters a lifelong love of nature—not to mention strengthening family bonds! From prairies and botanical gardens to wildlife refuges and forest preserves, Fresh Air Family: Illinois is your guide to rewarding family adventures across the Prairie State. Whether you’re exploring sandstone canyons at Starved Rock, wandering Chicago’s lakefront parks , or hiking among dramatic bluffs and waterfalls in southern Illinois, every destination has been carefully chosen and personally explored by the authors, Chevon and Kameron Stanton.
This parent-friendly travel guide is packed with honest advice, fun facts, and thoughtful tips to help you make the most of every outing. Each listing includes age recommendations, accessibility info, local history, and STEAM-inspired ideas to help kids of all ages connect with the natural world in meaningful ways.
Created in collaboration with Fresh Air Family—an award-winning nonprofit dedicated to outdoor education and family adventure—this inspiring travel guide invites you to slow down, look closer, and experience Illinois’s wild beauty together.
Inside you’ll find:
- 75 outdoor destinations, organized by region
- Helpful tips to make each trip a bonding experience
- Age-specific activity ideas and STEAM opportunities
- Nature facts, regional history, and stories that bring each place to life
Chevon and Kameron Stanton are a hiking duo from Chicago with a passion for exploring the outdoors and bringing people along for the journey. What started as simply exploring trails together turned into a mission to help more people discover the beauty that exists right in their own backyard. Through their nonprofit, BPO Hikes, Chevon and Kameron work to get Chicagoans outside and connected with nature in fun, accessible, and meaningful ways. They travel throughout the Midwest, searching for hidden gems, scenic overlooks, waterfalls, forests, canyons, and trails worth experiencing.
Northwest & west-central Illinois
- Apple River Canyon State Park, Apple River
- Castle Rock State Park, Oregon
- Dudley Skate Park, Macomb
- Everly Park, Macomb
- Glenwood Park, Macomb
- Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area, Chandlerville
- Kilbuck Bluffs County Forest Preserve, Rockford
- Lakeview Nature Area, Macomb
- Luthy Botanical Garden, Peoria
- Mississippi Palisades State Park, Savanna
- Nachusa Grasslands, Franklin Grove
- Rock Cut State Park, Caledonia
- Snakeden Hollow State Fish and Wildlife Area, Victoria
- Stone Bridge Trail, Rockford
- Veterans Park, Macomb
- Weldon Springs State Park, Clinton
- White Pines Forest State Park, Mount Morris
- Wolf Creek State Park, Windsor
Chicago & surrounding suburbs
- Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe
- Field Museum, Chicago
- Garfield Park Conservatory, Chicago
- Grant Park, Chicago
- Jackson Park Phoenix Garden, Chicago
- Lakefront Trail, Chicago
- Lincoln Park Conservatory, Chicago
- Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago
- Millennium Park, Chicago
- Montrose Beach Bird Sanctuary, Chicago
- Morton Arboretum, Lisle
- Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago
- North Branch Trail, Chicago
- Oak Park Conservatory, Oak Park
- Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Chicago
- Ping Tom Park, Chicago
- Pullman Park, Chicago
- Rocky Glen Waterfall, Lemont
- Salt Creek Trail, Chicagoland
- Steelworkers Park, Chicago
- Thatcher Woods, Oak Park
- The 606, Chicago
North-central & east-central Illinois
- Grant Woods Forest Preserve, Ingleside
- Kankakee River State Park, Bourbonnais
- Matthiessen State Park, Oglesby
- Meadowbrook Park, Urbana
- Middle Fork State Fish and Wildlife Area, Oakwood
- Moraine Hills State Park, McHenry
- Prairie Park, DeKalb
- Rock Springs Conservation Area & Nature Center, Decatur
- Starved Rock State Park, Oglesby
- University of Illinois Arboretum, Urbana
Southwest & southern Illinois
- Adams Wildlife Sanctuary, Springfield
- Boo Rochman Memorial Park, Carbondale
- Cedar Lake, Makanda
- Ferne Clyffe State Park, Goreville
- Giant City State Park, Cobden
- Lake of Egypt, Creal Springs
- Lincoln Memorial Garden and Nature Center, Springfield
- Little Grand Canyon, Pomona
- Pere Marquette State Park, Grafton
- Pyramid State Recreation Area, Pinckneyville
- Southwind Park, Springfield
- Washington Park Botanical Garden, Springfield
Southeast Illinois
- Bell Smith Springs, Ozark
- Brush Hill Preserve, Carbondale
- Cache River State Natural Area, Vienna
- Cave-in-Rock State Park, Elizabethtown
- Dixon Springs State Park, Golconda
- Fox Ridge State Park, Charleston
- Garden of the Gods, Herod
- Jackson Falls, Simpson
- Millstone Bluff, Simpson
- Pomona Natural Bridge, Pomona
- Rim Rock National Recreation Trail, Shawnee National Forest
- Stoneface Research Natural Area, Somerset
- Tunnel Hill State Trail, Vienna