Two brothers, with a family name of Cairo (which probably started the Egypt-themed names in this part of Illinois), purchased part of this park and gave it the name because of the abundance of ferns. Apparently, they weren’t great at spelling, but they knew beautiful property when they saw it. Emma Rebman, a local school teacher bought it and opened the park to the public on Sundays for ten-cents each. The park website says Miss Rebman offered to sell the park to the state of Illinois, a sign in the park says she willed it to the state of Illinois, and the park website says conservation group efforts finally lead to the state’s purchasing of her parcel along with more acres surrounding it in 1949. There is a trail named in her honor that we hiked along with a couple of other trails to see caves, which are really cliff overhangs, and waterfalls. With the recent rains, the waterfalls did not disappoint.

Cars crowded the main hiking area, so we parked at a picnic site along the park road and walked back to the cluster of trailheads. Our first hike to Hawk’s Cave felt nice and secluded with no one around, but we had company on the other trails. There was a group of rock climbers on the Rebman Trail that we watched for a bit. Looks like scary fun. It rained all morning, so it was nice for all of us to get some sunshine to enjoy the afternoon in the outdoors. This park was about 15 miles from our KOA campsite.