CRAB ORCHARD NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE & THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER LEVEE DRIVE.
Day 76 – At around 7 a.m. it was 46 degrees & cloudy. We left the RV about 9:30, and by then there was some sun peeking out. We drove ½ hour north from the campground to Crab Orchard NWR, stopping first at the Visitor’s Center to get a map & some information about the Refuge. There are a couple of Wildlife Refuges in this area, the Shawnee National Forest, several wildlife conservation areas, and many other things to do. There are lots of lakes, and Parks with waterfalls & rock formations are also advertised. We had thought about staying an additional day, too, but the weather forecast is for rain all day tomorrow, beginning later tonight. So we prioritized & decided to see as much as we could today.
Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge was a wise choice for us to begin our tour with. It was 44,000 acres with many good-quality roads running through it. There are 3 lakes on the Refuge: Crab Orchard, Devil’s Kitchen, and Little Grassy Lake. We were surprised to find out that there were also four different campgrounds within the Refuge. We stopped at several of them to check them our for future visits. Only one was open for camping at this time; the others were opening in April. Fishing and boating appeared to be the biggest draw with two marinas and numerous boat launches. There were also six hiking trails of various lengths & difficulties. Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge: near Marion & Carterville, IL – Routes 148 (not too far from Interstate 57) & south of Route 13; 8588 Route 148, Marion, IL 62959; (618) 997-3344; www.fws.gov/refuge/crab_orchard.
Crab Orchard NWR, Marion, IL
We were told at the Visitor’s Center where we would find active Bald Eagle nests. We looked for those sites but did not find them. We were also told about Beaver dams, since we were hoping to see a Beaver. We easily found the Beaver dam. No Beavers, but a Canada Goose was sitting on her eggs on top of the dam. While we were watching her, a woman drove up & asked us if we’d gotten the Goose to move around or was she just ignoring us. She said this Goose & her mate had been nesting in the same spot for years & produced healthy chicks yearly, and that people drive by all year to check on her. This started a long conversation. She told us where to find the Great Blue Herons today, which nest were the adult Bald Eagles sitting in today, and yes, there was a Beaver that seemed to get along well with the two Canada Geese & their young. She said she lived not too far from the State Park where we were camping & that she’d stopped by the Refuge on her way to Sam’s Club. She asked if we knew where to find all the Bald Eagles currently. We said no, where? So she told us about a road which travels on the levee that runs along the Mississippi River. She said the recent flooding had brought in lots of fish, so the Eagles perch there, and that the most Eagles she’d seen in one tree was five, but a friend of hers from the wildlife photography class had actually seen 15 in one tree. Wow, we said. And how do you get to this levee road, we asked. Well, you just drive down to the River and the wolf lake levee road. Then the nice, talkative lady headed out to Sam’s Club. We finished up driving the whole NWR road tour, stopping for our lunch at a boat launch area, and looked at the DeLorme Map Book to try to find the wolf lake levee road.
Click any picture below to see a slideshow.
On the map, we couldn’t find a “Wolf Lake Levee Road” along the Mississippi, but there was a small town called Wolf Lake, and there was a road called the levee road, so we started driving that way. Near the southwestern end of Crab Orchard NWR, we stopped at a Park called Giant City State Park. We drove through & checked out the campsites since this campground was also closer to the NWR than where we were currently staying. We thought it was good enough to stay next time we’re here, although we do like the place we’re at, it would be nice to be closer to the Refuge. The GPS had us as being out in the middle of a field – it could not figure out where we were starting from, so using it was not working to use it to get to the levee. It first took us on a dirt road down a hill to where culverts allowed rushing water to cross the road. We turned off the GPS and just took small roads and worked ourselves west for about an hour until we got to the town of Wolf Lake. Then we kept going west until we reached the Mississippi. Sure enough, there was a levee running alongside it with a gravel road on top of it. Almost immediately we saw a large Bald Eagle in a tree out in the River.
We spent a couple of hours just driving along the River on top of the levee. On the west side of the levee, the River had flooded. Looking down into the River as we drove along, we could see many turtles, great blue herons, and various ducks. Looking onto the levee road ahead, we saw an animal cross the road & head down to the River. We thought it might be a Beaver or a River Otter, but when we got closer, we saw it dive into the River and start swimming to a tree. It was a Raccoon! We didn’t know that raccoons swam. It got up into a tree, and then it kept peeking at us from behind the tree to see if we were still there. Ahead of us as we were driving, we also saw a couple of deer cross the road. On the opposite side of the levee were very nice farmlands. Some of them were partially flooded, but no doubt without the levee to protect them, the lands would’ve been completely under water for many miles. We did not see numerous Bald Eagles, but the ones we did see were beautiful and everything we saw made the excursion certainly worth the time!
We drove back to the campground and had dinner. Gracie yelled at us for being away for so long. But it was a good day and we will come back again another time to see more of what this area has to offer. The high today was 74 degrees, it was windy, and the sun was in & out of the clouds all day.
Ferne Clyffe State Park: 90 Goreville Road, Goreville, IL 62939; (618) 995-2411; https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/Parks/Pages/FerneClyffe.aspx. This State Park accepts reservations for campsites beginning April 1. We arrived towards the end of March & it was first-come, first-served. There was no one at the Ranger’s Station to assign us a campsite. The campground host said to pick a site and someone from the Park would be around to collect fees & do registration. There were very few campers here & we found a great site, #23. It’s a beautiful Park. Off-season it was only $18 per night. Electrical hook-ups at all RV sites, and they were decently spaced from each other. The campground was surrounded by deep woods. A family of white-tailed deer walk through the campground often. There is a dump station & water is available at the campground. We would stay here again, or if we intended to spend most of our time at Crab Orchard NWR, we might stay there just for convenience. However, there is a lot to do in this area and Ferne Clyffe is a good medium point of reference.