| 
Cache River Valley in Illinois
Autumn sweeps across the sprawling wetlands in southernmost Illinois later than the rest of the Heartland, lingering like hovering butterflies before migrating south.
Cradled between Shawnee National Forest and the Ozark Mountains, the Cache River State Natural Area attracts canoers, and bicyclers ride nearby trails. Close to the small town of Belknap (40 miles southeast of Carbondale), the Cache River meanders amid ancient cypresses that rise from open stretches of this waterway.
Three mapped routes that encompass more than 75 miles attract bicyclers. Pedalers climb gravel back roads up woodsy hills and ease through villages without a stoplight in sight.
Canoers can paddle the well-marked river on 3- to 5-hour trips that loop back near the town of Perks (5 miles west of Belknap). You glide past a cypress more than 1,000 years old. In early mornings and late afternoons, egrets squawk and flap, as canoes drift where the birds dive for fish.
Reviewed April 2004.
