BY ANDREW MORKES, FOUNDER AND AUTHOR OF NATURE IN CHICAGOLAND UPDATED 2023 If I had a second wife, she would be Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, which is located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan about 425 miles from Chicago. I have hiked its beautiful trails, hunted agates and fossils and collected driftwood on its rocky … Continue reading Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore: Wilderness, Waterfalls, Great Hiking and Camping, and Much More
Great hiking and fantastic views of the Missipppi and Apple Rivers Beautiful, secluded beaches, towering sand dunes, and top-notch hiking trails just 50 miles from Chicago A beautiful nature center on the DuPage River that has easy hiking trails, live animals, a play area for children, and much more 8 places to see bison in … Continue reading The 8 Most-Popular Stories at Nature in Chicagoland in July 2019
We came, we readied our 10-foot inflatable kayak, we floated placidly at times down the winding creek with the sun shining down on us, we were wowed by the wildlife and wildflowers, we paddled vigorously buffeted by high wind at other times, and we had a lot of fun and faced a few challenges, but … Continue reading Nippersink Creek Provides a Great Kayaking or Canoeing Adventure Just an Hour From Chicago
“Ice!,” my 2-year-old son once exclaimed as he pointed at the Moon in the heavens. I described the Moon as looking like a “communion wafer in the sky” in a poem I wrote about watching hundreds of thousands of bats emerge from a cave in Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. Over the years, … Continue reading Thoughts on the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing and Why the Moon Still Makes Me Swoon
BY ANDREW MORKES, FOUNDER & AUTHOR OF NATURE IN CHICAGOLAND NOTE: THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN 2019; THE LEGO EXHIBIT HAS CLOSED. What would life be like without LEGOs (or LEGO® bricks as The LEGO Group likes to call them)? Well, the floors of my house would be cleaner and I’d have fewer cuts on … Continue reading LEGO Exhibit at Morton Arboretum Helps Kids Connect With Nature
Less than an hour away from Chicago there is a wild and beautiful place that features nearly 200-foot sand dunes rising above 3 miles of beautiful Lake Michigan beach, as well as black oak forests, bogs, creeks, marshes, and other natural wonders filled with more than 1,000 plant and animal species. No, this is not … Continue reading Indiana Dunes State Park: Beautiful Beaches, Peaceful Forests, and a Biodiversity Hotspot
An excellent destination if you're tired of the flat, boring topography of most of Chicagoland More than 200 Native American burial mounds in what many consider to be one of the most beautiful areas of the Upper Mississippi River Valley A beautiful nature area with easy trails, a nature center with live animals and a … Continue reading The 7 Most-Popular Stories at Nature in Chicagoland in June 2019
A change of pace at Nature in Chicagoland. This poem is the partly true story of a Chicago women who disappeared into one of our beautiful forest preserves. I wrote this sad poem to imagine her time alone in the woods. I. Spring She was a hiker,a marker of maps,an eyer of rivers to cross,eskers … Continue reading The Hiker
BY ANDREW MORKES, FOUNDER & AUTHOR OF THE “NATURE IN CHICAGOLAND” BLOG UPDATED JUNE 2024 Western Avenue between Peterson and Bryn Mawr Avenues is an urban speedway. Cars race through this densely-packed neighborhood as if there’s a pot of gold waiting at road’s end in each direction. (Western, by the way, is the longest road—24 … Continue reading West Ridge Nature Preserve: An Oasis in Chicago
I'm taking a break from nature to write about Jim McKenna, my father-in-law, who passed away in 2003. I wrote this remembrance two days after his death. Jim was a great husband, father, brother, uncle, great-uncle, father-in-law, and friend, and everyone—no doubt—has their own fond memories of him. One of my best memories of Jim … Continue reading Remembering My Father-in-Law Jim on Father’s Day