Special Weekend Trip! Touch of Nature Trails, IL – Volunteer Vacation 2024

Nestled amidst the breathtaking beauty of the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois, join this project to support trail accessibility at Touch of Nature Environmental Center!

Touch of Nature Environmental Center hosts experiential education programs that utilize the many natural resources on and around its 3,400 acres located in beautiful Southern Illinois. These programs offer opportunities for all people and focus on traditional outdoor activities, environmental education, and adventure pursuits. 

Volunteers will work together to establish a half mile connecting trail between two pre-existing trails. The new connecting trail will allow continual public access to the trails while summer camps are in session. By creating this new connection, hikers will be able to use trails that previously would have been closed due to programming in progress. Volunteers will hike to the project site from their cabin. The hike to the project site is about a half mile on sidewalks, with about 100 feet of hiking through uneven terrain.

During this trip, Touch of Nature’s average high temperature is 68°, and average low temperature is 44°.

There is no experience needed to join a Volunteer Vacation! Your expert hosts will provide detailed instruction, tool demonstrations, and project oversight throughout the week. All you need is a willing attitude and to be in good physical condition to participate in moderate physical activity for approximately 6-8 hours a day with plenty of breaks, at your own pace. Find out more about what it’s like to join a Volunteer Vacation and other frequently asked questions here.

AHS acknowledges with gratitude that this project takes place on the traditional lands of the Osage, Quapaw, Myaamia, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, Kaskaskia, and Kickapoo peoples past and present. We honor the land itself, the Indigenous communities who have stewarded this land for generations, their deep and sacred connection to these lands, and those who continue to steward these lands today. We offer this land acknowledgement as the first of many steps to stand as an ally and amplify Indigenous voices. We invite the American Hiking Society community to join us through continued efforts to support Indigenous communities and learn more about the history of the lands on which we live, work and recreate.

Click here for a PDF of trip details.