Giant City

Giant City, originally uploaded by medusahead.

Where I grew up, the forest behind my subdivision was our playground. And by forest, I mean a paltry grouping of trees and shrubs that hadn't yet been earmarked for destruction. We built forts and caught crawdads in the stream. I saw a snake once when I was sampling honeysuckle. I came home at dusk smelling of wild onions and dirt, and in my memory, my childhood was spent in an magical, enchanted forest.

And then I went to Giant City.

Every July we make the trek up to Southern Illinois for the annual Sweazy family reunion. We cozy up in cabins at Giant City and spend our days swimming, gorging ourselves on the lodge's famous fried chicken and playing intense rounds of bacci ball or the new favorite, baggo.

There had been hikes in the past but never on the famed Giant City trail.

I had no idea what I had been missing.

This was my husband's playground when he was a child. Situated in the middle of the Shawnee National Forest, Giant City was carved out of glaciers as they inexorably pushed their way to the sea thousands of years ago. It is a fortress of stone and black, chilly caves. Emerald green moss grows inside graffiti carved into its walls before the civil war. It is hushed and mysterious and heartstoppingly beautiful.

And it will be my daughter's playground every summer.