Giant City State Park

Giant City State Park, near Makanda, Illinois, takes its name from massive sandstone bluffs and rock formations that form street-like passages along its Giant City Nature Trail. The park also contains the Stone Fort, a low defensive wall built of stacked sandstone by Native peoples centuries before European settlement, whose exact purpose remains debated by archaeologists. A CCC-built stone lodge from the 1930s still operates as a restaurant within the park. The park sits within the Shawnee National Forest region of southern Illinois, known for its sandstone bluffs and canyons.