We went to Shawnee National Forest in the Southern tip of Illinois to see the eclipse. Our intent was to park at the Garden of the Gods, but they were “closed for safety.” The guy at the entrance said to wait about an hour, so we drove down the road, found some shade, parked the car and relaxed for a while. While waiting I remembered that the forest had an alerts section on their website, so I checked it out, but nothing for our location. Then I saw the blue and white bird…Twitter! Check Twitter, duh! I wish I would have thought of that sooner. I didn’t get a whole lot more information, but they did say that they would tweet when the parking lot was open. It had been almost an hour. We saw an ambulance drive by, then a long line of cars, and decided to go for it. Drove back to the entrance, but saw the dreaded sign…Parking Lot Full. Ugh!
We drove around to check out our other options. Saw a little cemetery. It had a very small area to park and a clearing above to see the eclipse. We saved it in our phones and moved on; it was too close to the road, but still a last minute option. Found a forest road. Ended up being a dead end, sort of. There was a gate at the end to some farm or ranch. On the way out I noticed a big grassy area next to the trail. I figured that was another worst case scenario option. It was further from the main road, so it would be better than the cemetery. We continued on to a Trail head. The lot had a lot of cars, but wasn’t completely full! Sweet! So we parked and gathered our stuff for the night.
Double checked to make sure we had everything. Gathered a few items that weren’t packed yet: toothbrush, flip-flops, food, etc. Filled up our waters and were on our way! Time for some dispersed camping! Meaning what ever you bring in, you must pack out, nothing more, nothing less. It also means to leave nature as it is, don’t go hacking down a bunch of plants and trees to clear a spot for your perfect campsite. We followed the trail for a while, saw a few people set up already (although too close to the trail; I believe you are supposed to pick a spot at least 150 feet away). I think you should go off trail a little more, so that you are not as easily visible from the trail.
We finally found a good spot. Seemed like higher elevation, had some flatness to it, and no iffy trees nearby that could potentially fall on top of us. We set up the tent. Made some dinner. Then noticed all the teeny tiny ticks! Ugh! Seriously? Temps were in the 90’s. The area was pretty dry. Neither of us thought we would have to worry about ticks. So, we finished dinner, cleaned up, and got ready for the night. Luckily we had a handy tick remover tool and some extra zip lock bags! So instead of relaxing with a good book, we spent the next 3-4 hours searching and removing ticks from each other. I didn’t sleep well that night. Tossed and turned and worried til the sun came up.
Very carefully we packed ourselves up and headed back to the parking lot. It was still quite warm out, but we put our long pants on, gators, long sleeves, and doused ourselves in bug spray. When we got to the car, there were a few people up and around in the lot. One truck was packing up a big telescope. We had a little snack to eat. Repacked some things. Then headed down a Forest road trail. It was only about 9 am and had until about 2 pm for the total eclipse.
This trail was totally different than where we were the night before. The trail road had been used a lot by trucks or Jeeps. There were huge ruts in the road! At one point we found someone’s flip flops that had gotten stuck in the mud. We followed the trail for quite a ways. Dodging and Harry Potter wanding the spider webs. We finally stopped at a point that looked as though it was the highest point of the trail. As we looked further along, the trail just went down in elevation. We found some good trees and set up our hammocks. I know I fell asleep for a little while. Not sure how long we were relaxing there either, but it was nice. Super quiet and peaceful.
Around noon we headed back to the parking lot. There were more people there now. We changed clothes, dank more water, got the camera set up, and waited. There were some clouds in the sky, but scattered and small bunches. There was a group of people next to us that kept commenting on the clouds. They were pretty funny. “Oh, no! More clouds. Do you think they will pass in time?” And this was still an hour or so from the time of totality. I was actually thankful for some of the clouds. For one, it was a lot cooler! And two, so I could get the camera lined up with the sun. I didn’t have any filters for it, so I didn’t want to try and set it up with the sun blaring down.
As the time grew closer to totality, the brightness of the sun became dimmer. But it wasn’t noticeable right away. It wasn’t until there was just a sliver of sun shinning that we noticed the eerie feeling around us. As we reached the five minute countdown, nature began to change. The birds had stopped chirping. The crickets chirps became louder. The temperature dropped. The shadows on the ground were distorted (the shadow bands appeared). It was quiet. A weird, indescribable quiet. Five minutes took forever! But then it happened. The moon was totally in front of the sun. We saw the beads. The diamond ring. The corona waves. I tried to get some photos, but I seemed to have forgotten everything about the camera. I couldn’t see the buttons for any of the settings. Ugh! Whatever! We only had about two minutes of this spectacular event. I decided to just enjoy the view! It was amazing! We were in an area surrounded by trees, so we were unable to see the horizon, but still had breathtaking views. Was it worth it? Totally! Would I do it again? Maybe. There will be another eclipse in about seven years. If I get the chance to go again, I probably would, but if I didn’t get to see it again, I would be ok with that. I highly recommend that anyone who is even slightly curious or intrigued with this natural phenomenon, definitely make a trip to an area of totality. It is a truly amazing experience.
