Little Grand Canyon, Ponoma Bridge

In spite of a heat index over 105, we hiked the Little Grand Canyon on the west Side of Shawnee National Forest today.

Whenever trail guides say that the hiking conditions are "easy," "moderate," "difficult," or "rugged," I never know for sure what to think. I'd like to see these terms modified to something more like:
"the flip flop and stroller set can do this trail," or
"you're going to need at least sneakers with good traction, if not Merrills, to tackle this one," or
"if you can't run a mile in under 8 minutes you shouldn't be on this trail," or
"not many people attempt this one, so be ready to crawl through massive spider webs. You're probably going to get wet climbing through the canyons."

Little Grand Canyon definitely fell into the latter category, and it took about 2-1/2 hours to hike the whole trail. The reward was spectacular views, and the satisfaction of knowing we'd tackled one of the most rugged trails in Illinois.

Once we finished the Little Grand Canyon, we wanted to squeeze one more site into the afternoon: Ponoma Bridge.

This is a natural bridge in a rugged forest. It's so remote, we traveled down numerous county roads before finding a gravel road that meandered for 2-1/2 miles, where we found the trail head. We got out of the car and hiked for another half mile to get to the bridge. It's an incredibly peaceful place, and if I lived in the area, this would be my secret getaway spot.