OZARK (WSIL) -- Camp Ondessonk has seven marked trails and nearly 25 miles of trails to explore.
"It's about a thousand acres, a little bit less than a thousand acres, piece of property. It's owned and operated by the Catholic Diocese of Belleville, but we're open to guests from all sorts. We're going to hike to a place called Cedar Falls today. We also call it Pakentuk," explains Dan King, executive director at Camp Ondessonk.
Camp Ondessonk is located in Johnson County, north of Vienna.
"The upper part of the water fall from our main area is about a mile and a quarter. Most people like to go to the lower part of the falls because you look up at it," states King.
We decided to check out both the upper and lower views, but no matter which way you choose to go, Dan says proper attire is important.
"The thing that we encourage people, or that we talk to our summer campers about, is the need to wear appropriate shoes. People often want to wear open-toed shoes or even flip flops, and it's simply not enough protection for your feet. You'll see that I'm going to step on, not on the rock in a lot of places. I'm going to step off the side where it should be less slick where you can get a little bit of traction."
King says the best time to catch a rushing waterfall is after it rains.
"This area we call Pakentuk. The name of the waterfall is Cedar Falls, and it doesn't look like there's going to be any water running. Pakentuk is a reference to a boy scout camp. It's the name of a boy scout camp that use to be on this property. Pakentuk is short for Paducah, Kentucky. We've been told, and we've been repeating this for years so we hope it's true, that it's the highest free falling waterfall in the state of Illinois. I don't even know the exact height. I assume that at some point someone measured that."
After getting to the top of the falls you can add another half mile by hiking to the bottom.
"This is an example of a Southern Illinois sandstone glade. It's sort of an interesting microclimate in that, there are plants here that you would expect to find in the desert or elsewhere. Keep your eye out for Prickly Pear Cactus and other stuff. The plants tend to be stunted up here. It's just drier. So now we're in the rainforest, we were up in a desert-like area, and now we're down where it's really moist. Oh wow. There's a very large mushroom. It's one of the edible mushrooms, and people that eat a lot of mushrooms will fight with you till their death that this is better than a Morel mushroom."
Once at the bottom of the falls, you can enjoy the view and cool off. If you're interested in visiting Camp Ondessonk or Cedar Falls, King asks that you and let them know you're coming. You will also need to fill out a form before hiking.
Camp Ondessonk also offers bike trails, horse trails and camping. For more information, click .
