•October 25, 2017•

Coming from a part of Illinois that has more trees than people Oh Brother grew up with a natural appreciation for autumn.

Southern Illinois is the home of Garden of the Gods, located off Karbers Ridge Road where Saline County meets Pope County.

As a kid my uncle Kenneth hauled my brother Randy and me down gravel roads from Harrisburg in his 1952 Chevy for our first visit. As we turned onto the one lane gravel access road I remember seeing the sandstone walls reaching to the sky.

They were 100 feet high and might as well have been a thousand feet to this six year old. My amazement led to a stop along the side of the road before we reached the park.

There Uncle Kenneth stood at the base while he let me climb a few feet up the wall. When I was an adult, I took my little brother Jeff back to the Garden where we scaled the wall all the way to the top.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.