Shawnee National Forest, Illinoisby skispring247 Garden of the Gods is a park within the Shawnee National Forest in the southern tip of Illinois. Me and two buddies took a backpacking trip down there (our first) and had the time of our lives. Late March 05' it suprisingly got warm early. The couple days we were there it was 55-65 degrees so it was nice. This was the first of our hopeful future backpacking trips. Number Pictures:12 Date Created: 1/30/06