Lincoln Trail State Park

09/02/2026

Evening Bat Walk, September 8, 2026 – 6:30-8 pm

Join Joy O’Keefe, Wildlife Extension Specialist at the University of Illinois, for an evening bat walk. You’ll learn about bats of eastern Illinois, their habitat associations, and how they use echolocation to find prey and navigate their environment! After dark, we’ll use acoustic monitoring devices to listen for bats along forest edges in the park. Bring a flashlight if you have one and sturdy walking shoes.

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08/31/2026

Good afternoon everyone. We have this weekend a rather large amount of campers coming for the Holiday. We also have some unusually higher temperatures as well. We are asking campers to try to please use electricity as sparingly as possible. We are here and we have a company that will be on hand to fix any problems that may occur, but we ask you to try to limit some electrical use if possible.

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08/25/2026

Hello everyone. The IDNR Heavy Equipment Crew will be here this week to help take care of some dangerous snags in the park that was left after the devastating storm that hit us three weeks ago. They will be concentrating on snags above the roads and the camping areas. Please be patient and cautious as we make more progress.

08/07/2026

Thank you to Shelly Crouch , an artist and author of these children’s books. They will be available in the Nature Center near Plainview Campground this weekend. Come out and read to your kids.

07/31/2026

Most of Lincoln Trail State Park is back open after strong storms moved through Clark County Monday evening, causing extensive damage to the park just south of Marshall.

07/31/2026

Hello everyone! The park is open. There are a couple of hanging limbs on the North side that we ask people to stay away from, we have barricaded it off. Please do not go around the barricades. We had staff from 9 other Illinois State Parks come out to help clean up. Those parks are Wayne Fitzgerald, Burning Star, Ten Mile Creek, Walnut Point, Fox Ridge, the Helpfich Game Farm,Red Hills, Ramsey Lake and our staff. Thanks to our Management staff in Springfield for making this happen. David Hock said “we all wear the same patch.” That sums it up. We are proud to be IDNR.

07/28/2026

As many of you might have heard, the storm did an incredible amount of damage to the park. We lost a tremendous amount of trees. Many of these trees were very old. Tomorrow a convoy of IDNR Land Management staff are coming from all over the Southern part of the state to help us save our park. There will be many workers and large machinery. Please be patient with us while we do what is needed. The park staff was able to get all of the huge trees off the road, but there are limbs, sticks and debris everywhere. The road is closed until we can make things safe.

07/28/2026

Hello everyone, the park got a direct hit from this evening’s storm. Staff are going work to clear all of the trees off the roads. Please do not come into the park until we give the all clear. There are several trees down.

07/18/2026

07/17/2026

The poke w**d!