Shawnee National Forest — Attraction in Carbondale

Thousands of snakes shut down Illinois road during fall migration

The road will stay closed through Oct. 30, but that isn't stopping visitors from checking out the migration.

Author: Hunter Bassler, Holden Kurwicki Published: 5:18 PM CDT September 25, 2025

UNION COUNTY, Illinois — Around 35 species of snakes have shut down nearly three miles of a southern Illinois road to vehicles as their bi-annual migration peaks. Forest officials say thousands of snakes, as well as other reptiles and amphibians, use the road inside the Shawnee National Forest to travel back and forth between their feeding grounds in the nearby LaRue Swamp and their hibernation area in the surrounding bluffs. To protect the animals as they migrate, the 2.7-mile stretch of LaRue Road is now closed yearly from Sept. 1 to Oct. 30 and March 15 to May 15.

“The No. 1 snake you’re going to see here is going to be the Northern Cottonmouth,” U.S. Forest Service Wildlife Biologist Mark Vukovich previously said. “The other two venomous snakes are the Copperhead and the Timber Rattlesnake. You have a good chance of seeing those.”

Visitors interested in looking at the snakes or participating in other recreational activities in the forest are still welcome to travel the "snake road" on foot. Vukovich said the best time to visit for serpent viewing is in October. “It’s a great way to get people over that feeling that snakes are bad and they’re nasty creatures,” Vukovich said. “They’re not. They’re not at all.”

Historic and cultural stereotypes against snakes are rooted in ignorance and misunderstanding, according to the University of Illinois' Wildlife Epidemiology Laboratory. In reality, the animals play a vital role in ecosystems worldwide, including controlling pest populations, offering a food source to larger predators, and helping maintain biodiversity by curbing...

Come for the Garden of the Gods, stay for the wondrous hiking.

If you drive 4.5 hours to see the Garden of the Gods, you also have to spend time hiking the actual forest it’s in. That’s what Emily and I did after taking in the breathtaking views at the Gardens.

We kind of went into this blindly with just a map of the area. We backtracked a bit to this area that may have been something called Backpacker’s Hike or something like that. Pictures say it was the Indian Point Trail. Anyways, we parked next to a few other cars and headed out to hike.

I don’t need to explain hiking but I will go over a few fun things we saw. There were more cliffs to enjoy but the views were just a bit less than stellar compared to the Gardens. Still great though. We saw a lot of places where people must’ve camped or hung out at night cause there were fire pits everywhere. We deviated from the path cause we were looking to hike as much as possible and ended up getting dead-ended about 4 times.

While we were limited to this area of Shawnee, I would say we got a pretty good taste of what it offers. We got to see so many beautiful viewpoints and took plenty of great photos. I know this is just scraping the surface of what Shawnee National Forest offers and maybe some day I can go back and see all the other landmarks that this place is known for.

Enjoy nature. It’s a...

I grew up with Shawnee National Forest as my back yard and my childhood 1979-94 was spent exploring the bluffs around Trigg tower, Millstone Bluff and lake, Gum Springs, Sand Cave, lake Glendale, Dixon springs to Bell Smith springs and jumping from the rocks, Cedar Lake and the swinging Bridge at Camp Ondessonk and Ferne Clyffe all beautiful places to go and be one with nature again. Take time to enjoy these places for yourself Let the worries of life fade when you see the natural beauty out in nature down to an ant to the beauty of a bald eagle 🦅 if you are able to see one sore. It's never to late but it couldn't have happened soon enough. Take a bag with you and if you see trash pick it up. You don't have to pick it all up but if others witness you making a difference they will be inspired to be a difference as well. Go back to nature every chance you get remember who we are and what we deserve the peace on this beautiful planet to be the human nature and God is proud of. Don't just stay in Shawnee National Forest go enjoy all of our nation's forest and thank God and Teddy 🐻 Roosevelt for persevering such beauty that may have already been overcome from the greediest species on this planet. Christopher...