Type: Trail, Point-to-point
Difficulty: 2 / 10
Altitude: 370 ft
Dog Friendly: Yes, with leash
Jog-Stroller Friendly: Unknown
Filed Under: Running
The Tunnel Hill State Trail was once a railroad which is now gone.The old railroad is now a well packed fine gravel trail for runners and bicyclists. The trail stretches 42 miles from Harrisburg to Karnak including a 3-mile extension into Harrisburg on the north end and a 2.8-mile rail-trail extension to the new Henry Barkhausen Cache River Wetlands Center, near Whitehall, on the south end. The trail in Harrisburg is flat farm country then in New Castle the trail enters the Shawnee Forest and runs through the forest for roughly half the trail's length. In New Burnside the trail is among bluffs, and south of Vienna the trail enters lush wetlands. At Karnak the trail emerges from Cache River State Natural Area's ancient cypress tupelo swamp.
Tunnel Hill State Trail offers some of the state's most spectacular scenery, traveling through Shawnee National Forest and over the Cache River. The limestone-surfaced, hiking-biking trail has numerous bridges, most built upon original railroad trestles, including Breeden Trestle, which is 430 feet long and 90 feet high. As its name implies, the trail includes a 543-foot tunnel near Tunnel Hill, all on the former Norfolk-Southern Railroad right-of-way in southern Illinois.
The surface is a well packed fine ground gravel (an abandoned renovated railroad bed) that many consider to be an ideal running surface. The run can be broken into 8 major legs between main access points, as shown below:
Harrisburg to Carrier Mills (7.5miles)
Carrier Mills to Stonefort (6.7 miles)
Stonefort to New Burnside (4.4 miles)
New Burnside to Tunnel Hill (6.2 miles)
Tunnel Hill to Vienna (9.3 miles)
Vienna to Belknap (8.0 miles)
Belknap to Karnak (2.8 miles)
Starting at the north end in Harrisburg, the elevation is 370 feet, and goes to 340 feet in Karnak in the south. The highest point is at the Tunnel, at 680 feet. The maximum grade, although sustained for awhile, is only 2% between Vienna and Tunnel Hill.
Tunnel Hill State Trail is a day-use trail, offering drinking water, privy toilets and parking at the access areas. Motorized vehicles, horses and hunting are not allowed on the trail. The site office for Tunnel Hill State Trail is located on State Highway 146 on the east side of Vienna. For more information about the trail, contact the site superintendent at Tunnel Hill State Trail, P.O. Box 671, Vienna, IL 62995, or phone (618) 658-2168.
The trail corridor, which varies from 40 to 200 feet in width, connects numerous communities: Karnak in Pulaski County; Belknap, Vienna, Stonefort in Williamson and Saline counties; and Carrier Mills and Harrisburg in Saline County. Each has parking areas from which hikers, runners and cyclists can access the trail.
The parking lot at Harrisburg is city-owned and maintained. Located at Walnut Street and U.S. Route 45, it is at the northern end of a 2.5-mile-long, city-owned trail. The Harrisburg trail skirts the city?s east side parallel to Route 45 and runs to the city?s southeast limits, where it connects to Tunnel Hill State Trail at the intersection of Feazel Street (Pauper Crossing) and the highway. Parking is available only at the Walnut Street lot.
In addition to the large communities, there also are hamlets along the trail, including Bloomfield, Sanburn and Ledford. In addition, there there a handful of of locations?that could he described as ghost towns?Forman, Bender, Parker City and New Castle. All serve as landmarks to trail users. Interpretive signs along the length of the trail point out old coal mines and a sandstone quarry.
Posted by: tradkelly and last modified on Feb 02, 2006 by thoos
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