Charles Mound 1235' - Illinois' High point                               June 1, 2019

After a very long day of driving across Iowa on May 31, we had a much shorter drive to get to the highpoint of Illinois: Charles Mound on June 1. Given this highpoint is on private property, the owners only allow visitors access on four weekends out of the year: the first weekends in June, July and August, and a weekend in February. 

While you can drive up to this highpoint and do a short 0.3 mile hike from the parking lot, we opted for a longer hike. We parked the rental car at the mailboxes on the street, then walked for a mile (one-way) to the highest point in Illinois. Something we weren't prepared for: the relentless mosquitoes and gnats! At one point, we elected to put our rain jackets on (despite it being hot and humid) to keep the bugs at bay. 

Charles Mound marked Ricardo's 47th state highpoint and Ulyana's 22nd. For this highpoint, we walked a total of 3 miles (despite the bugs!) to at least get some blood flowing in our legs after countless hours in the car.

In the evening, we drove to Chicago to enjoy the sights and sounds of the city from the famous Navy Pier. Of course, we sampled some of the famous Chicago pizza. The next day we were able to sample another favorite: the Chicago style hot dogs! Before our flight later that evening, we visited the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower), which had spectacular views of the city, and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, just 40 miles west of Chicago. Before the Large Hadron Collider was built in Switzerland in 2008, Fermilab's Tevatron was the most powerful particle accelerator in the world, helping to unlock many secrets of the universe!

State high points rank: 45

Zoom in/out for additional map details

SUMMITS: Charles Mound slideshow 

SCIENCE: Fermi Lab and Neutrinos

​​If you'd like to find out more info on how to be part of this project or how to make a donation go to www.gofundme.com/summits-songs-and-science