Out of all the hiking locations in the area, I believe Pomona Natural Bridge is one of the most unique to southern Illinois.

Length: ⅓  mile

Time to hike: 15 minutes

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The Pomona Natural Bridge is easiest to locate off of state Route 127. Turn onto Pomona Road and then right onto Natural Bridge Road, follow this road until you see a parking lot and a sign.

As the name suggests, this trail boasts a beautiful natural bridge made of sandstone that seems to have been carved out by water over the course of many years.

The trail to get there is gravel, most of the way, and is pretty even and flat. There are virtually no obstacles making this an easy walk.

It will fork at the beginning, as well. If you want to get to the bridge quicker go to the right. The trail is short enough that it won’t take long to get to it either way.

When you reach the bridge, you can walk on top of it, below it and even down the ravine a bit. There are many things that you can discover and explore, and a lot of wildlife like turtles, birds and frogs.

I do hesitate a bit to call this trail a hike. It’s very short and takes less than 20 minutes to hike the entire trail if you do not stop.

There are ways to prolong the hike such as exploring the area around the bridge or finding places to hide such as caves, but other than that it’s pretty tame.

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It’s a great landmark to go on to see beautiful sights, but if you’re looking for something a little more rigorous then this may not be a trail for you.

Staff reporter Elizabeth Biernacki can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @EBiernacki_619.

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