Alan McPherson
author of Fifty Nature Walks in Southern Illinois
and 100 Nature Walks in the Missouri Ozarks

Southern Illinois is one of the relatively undiscovered natural areas in the United States. Unfortunately, many, have stereotypically, envisioned Illinios as a vast sea of agricultural flat-lands. While this may be true for some parts of Illinois, the tip of Illinois benefits from the scenic interior plateau as it stretches from the Mississippi to the Ohio River. There is a wealth of natural beauty in Southern Illinois, exemplified by the Ozark hills, natural rock formations, bluffs, ravines, streams, numerous lakes, swamps, sloughs, and the great opportunities for the reader for years to come. The nature walks listed range from the simple of the kind that require little exertion to the difficult and strenuous that require many miles of travel and are for the more experienced hiker. Most nature walks are reasonably travesed in a few hours or less. Let Fifty Nature Walks in Southern Illinois help you experience the wonders of this fabulous area.

Alan McPherson has taken the opportunity to catalogue fifty locales in Illinois in a similar way to which he has done in the Missouri Ozarks (100 Nature Walks in the Missouri Ozarks) . In southern Illinois McPherson documents over one-hundred actual hikes within these locales, all of which are open for public use. Alan is a naturalist and the author of several successful books relating to nature and hiking in Florida, southern and northern Indiana, and California. he has a master's degree in natural resources, park and reacreational adminiistration and alternative education. Alan has personally hiked the trails in this book. Most of all, Alan loves nature and wants you to enjoy it as well, and to protect it for future generations.