After spending a week with our friends in Tennessee, we started heading back to St. Louis to resume our Route 66 trip. To break up the long drive, we stopped at Ferne Clyffe State Park in Illinois for a few days.
Thursday was a travel day from Obey River Campground in Tennessee to Ferne Clyffe State Park in Illinois. It was about a five hour drive. The main stop for the day was at Chaney’s Dairy Barn in Bowling Green Kentucky. The only other stops were at a rest area and a gas station to refuel.
The week before, when we were traveling from Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky to Obey River, we noticed a sign for Chaney’s Dairy Barn. We didn’t see the sign in time to get off at the exit, so we marked it on our map to visit later. This time we just put the diary barn as our first destination in Google Maps, so we wouldn’t miss it.
Chaney’s was a lovely place. It is a dairy farm with an inside market selling local wares along with sandwiches and their own ice cream. They also give farm tours, but we didn’t go on one. We timed our drive so we would reach the dairy barn around lunch time. That allowed us to have a leisurely morning and say our good-byes to our friends before leaving Obey River.
Unfortunately, Keith was still limited on what he could eat due to the previous day’s dental procedure. So while Ann ordered a pulled pork sandwich with chips, he went back to Red Tail and ate some applesauce and watermelon. Then he rejoined Ann for ice cream.
Ann had a waffle cone with mint chocolate chip and what Chaney’s called Moo La La. It was dark chocolate ice cream with swirls of peanut butter. Ann loves Hershey’s Peanut Butter Cup ice cream, and Moo La La was a pretty close substitute. Very tasty.
Keith had his usual vanilla shake. However, he was not allowed to drink it through a straw, so he went out to our rig to get a long handled spoon to eat the shake with. He thoroughly enjoyed the shake despite the different method of eating it.
We also picked up a couple of old fashioned sodas for later. One was Cheerwine, a cherry soda created in 1917 from North Carolina that we’ve had a couple of times before. The other was Hank’s Irish Ginger Ale. Hank’s Gourmet Beverages is based in Philadelphia.
We arrived at Ferne Clylffe State Park around dinner time. We both just scrounged around for our dinners. Ann had some leftover tacos while Keith made some instant mashed potatoes. The temperature had cooled down some that day, so it was very pleasant sitting outside in the wooded campground.
When we first connected Red Tail to the electrical post, it shut off after a few seconds. We tried two times. Then Keith changed the setting so we would only draw 20 Amps instead of 30 Amps. Then we had no problems. The 20 Amps was plenty to run the AC. We’re not sure if the change in settings is what made it work, or it was just an intermittent problem.
By the time we went to bed, the outside temperature was down in the 70’s, so we turned off the air conditioner and opened up the windows. We prefer to sleep to the sounds of nature, like the cicadas, frogs, and crickets, instead of the sound of the AC.
Friday was the coolest of the three full days we would be in Ferne Clyffe, so we went on the longest hike of the three Ann had planned. We left right from our camp site. Our goal was to hike the Happy Hollow Trail, but we needed to get to the trailhead first. From the campground, we took the Blackjack Oak Trail over to the picnic area, then the Happy Hollow Trailhead was a short road walk from there.
The whole trail was in the woods and we were thankful for the shade. We did the loop in the counterclockwise direction, which took us on the rim of the hollow, before dropping us down into the hollow at the other end. The most interesting part of the hike was during the long switchbacks leading us down. There were rock formations, with one of them being an arch.
The trail was lined with a wide variety of wildflowers. Once we were past the rock formations, the trail became rather overgrown. We’re guessing not many people take the whole loop. A couple of sections of trail were so overgrown that it was more like bushwhacking than following a trail. We kept checking our GPS track in AllTrails to make sure we were still following the trail.
Just like the hike in Land Between the Lakes (Land Between the Lakes, Kentucky- July 12th to 15th, 2026), there were a lot of spider webs across the trail. Trekking poles are great at removing the webs, but it gets tiring swinging the poles out in front the whole time. We would take turns being the one in front. Despite swinging our poles, we still took some webs in the face every now and then.
The trail at the bottom of the hollow widened out again, but the mosquitoes seemed to increase. We didn’t put any repellent on. The mosquitoes weren’t an issue as long as we kept moving. We kept our water breaks brief and Ann didn’t stop for very long when taking pictures.
The Happy Hollow track that we were following in AllTrails was only 4.7 miles long. However, we added more distance to that by starting at our campsite. By the time we returned to camp, we covered 6.3 miles with an elevation gain of 584 feet which took us a little over three hours to complete. It was hike number 12 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2026.
We completed our hike just as it was starting to rain. It rained off and on the rest of the day, but it was just a light rain. Keith still wasn’t feeling up to eating a real meal, so we didn’t cook dinner and just scrounged food for ourselves. It was another cool evening where we didn’t need to run the AC overnight, so we both slept pretty well.
Saturday, we went on another hike. It was lightly raining when we woke up, but then the skies cleared. We waited until after lunch before starting our hike.
We started out on the Blackjack Oak Trail again, but in the opposite direction, towards the lake. At the lake we started the Lake Trail in the counter-clockwise direction, then connected over to the Round Bluff Nature Preserve Trail. After completing the loop around the bluff, we rejoined the Lake Trail, which encircles the lake, before returning to camp on the Blackjack Oak Trail.
The hike was a nice variety of terrain. There were a couple of overlooks along the Blackjack Oak Trail, with views out over the woods and of the lake. The first half of the Round Bluff trail was not very interesting, but the second half was, walking alongside rocky formations of the bluff. About half way around, there was a dead armadillo on the trail which seemed like it had been there a while because of the odor in the air.
The lake looked like a perfect place to go for a paddle. Unfortunately, no swimming or boating was allowed on the lake, only fishing from the shore. A great heron kept moving around the shoreline to keep its distance from us. A family of deer were startled as we made our way around the far side of the lake.
Like the day before, we pretty much had the trails to ourselves. Yesterday, we saw no one on the trail. Today, we only came across one small group of hikers and one person fishing on the lake. However, the trails today must get more foot traffic than Happy Hollow, because we didn’t encounter any spider webs across the trail. Yay!
By the time we returned to camp, we covered 4.1 miles with an elevation gain of 780 feet which we completed in two hours and twenty minutes. We counted it as hike number 13 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2026.
It was getting hotter outside, so we turned on the AC when we got back. We both took showers to get out of our sweat-drenched clothes, then relaxed in the refreshing coolness inside Red Tail.
Sunday, Ann had planned our shortest hike, being the hottest of the three days we were at Ferne Clyffe. However, Keith didn’t feel like hiking, so Ann went by herself. Ann started out around 10:30 am, trying to complete the hike before the hottest part of the day. The Waterfall Trail started right in the campground. It was mainly a connector trail down to the main trail called Big Rocky Hollow Trail.
As Ann made her way down into the hollow, she slipped on a rock and fell. Other than maybe a couple of bruises, she was fine. However, her Apple Watch detected the fall and was going to initiate an emergency call if she didn’t cancel it. Ann had put her watch in water lock mode, since the sweat on her shirt cuff sometimes makes extraneous touches on the screen. So she hastily took it out of water lock mode and canceled the emergency call. It is nice to know that the watch detects falls. It gave her a little more peace of mind while hiking by herself. She also had her Garmin InReach (paid link) on her and sent several check in messages so Keith would know she was OK.
It was a little hard to tell where to cut over to the main trail. The place where the AllTrails map indicated the trail went, there were signs posted not to go that way. So she cut over on what looked like a trail just a little further down. However, later she saw a sign along Big Rocky Hollow Trail that indicated the trail back to the campground. She should have stayed up higher a little longer. She took that on the way back after exploring the other trails.
The Big Rocky Hollow Trail heads to a tall waterfall. At least it looks like it would be a tall waterfall if there was water flowing, but there wasn’t even a drop falling over the edge. However, it was still beautiful scenery. Ann could imagine how spectacular it would be in the spring.
Ann then took the Big Rocky Hollow Trail the other direction to the main trailhead. At the trailhead, there were four different trails to choose from. Besides the Big Rocky Hollow Trail, there was the Hawk’s Cave Trail, the Rebman Trail, and the Boy Scout Trail. Except for the Boy Scout Trail, all of the trails were pretty short, less than a mile long.
This trailhead was definitely the most popular in the park. Ann encountered dozens of other hikers and trail runners. She didn’t have to worry about running into spider webs! Well, at least on the four main trails. She did run into one on the way down from the campground and another one on the way back up to the campground, since she didn’t take the exact same way back up.
Ann hiked the Hawk’s Cave Trail and the Rebman Trail before heading back to the campground. There were a couple of caves on the Hawk’s Cave Trail. The caves were similar to the ones in Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio (Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio -August 9th to 12th, 2021). They were large overhangs of rocky cliffs, so you don’t need headlamps to explore them.
Many of the trees along the trail were labeled. Some of the popular trees in the parks included sweet gum, sassafras, and quite a few different types of oak.
The Rebman Trail followed along rocky cliffs where rock climbing was allowed. But no one was climbing while Ann was there. It also looked like there would be a few smaller waterfalls when the water is flowing in the creeks.
By the time Ann returned to camp, she had gone a total of 2.8 miles with an elevation gain of 325 feet which she completed in one hour and 42 minutes.
While Ann was out hiking, Keith worked on some maintenance items on Red Tail. The entry steps needed a little more lubrication. Then there were the sun visors. They had become so stiff and creaky that it took a lot of muscle to get them to move. Keith looked up the procedure to lubricate them. It involved removing the visors.
Keith removed the driver’s side visor, lubricated it then re-installed it. It was rather difficult to get it back in place. In the process, he dropped the Torx 20 screw bit. It must have rolled under the driver’s seat and he couldn’t find it. That meant he couldn’t remove the passenger side visor.
Keith decided to try to lubricate the visor without removing it. He discovered it was pretty easy and would recommend doing that instead of removing the visor.
The rest of the day we hung out mainly inside, in the air conditioning, to stay out of the heat. We did make dinner outside, but it was quick, tortilla pizzas on the Blackstone (paid link). We already had shredded cheese, sautéed peppers and onions, and tortillas leftover from the tacos we made at Dale Hollow (Dale Hollow Lake, Tennessee - July 16th to 22nd, 2026). All we needed to add was tomato sauce, seasonings and pepperoni.
We love state parks, hiking, and being out in nature. But we also love exploring small towns and quirky places. Now that we had reconnected with nature for a few days, it was time to head back to Route 66 and pick up where we left off in St. Louis.
Check out our related video: Ferne Clyffe State Park, Illinois
(Ann)