Busy spring break in the Shawnee

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[A mother told her son to climb up the rock after his sister at Garden of the Gods.

"She's gone so far because she's so good," the boy said.

"She's eight years old. Becca, slow down and wait for us to catch up with you," the mother said.

Down on the bluff a teenager lept from one rock to the next. A girl with him protested.

"If you break your leg you're going to have to suck it up because we're not going to take you back. We're going on our hike first," she said.

It was a busy and somewhat reckless day at Garden of the Gods Wednesday. On the Observation Trail there were four Illinois cars, four Kentucky cars and one each from Kansas, South Carolina and Florida.

Imagine Floridians spending their spring break in Southern Illinois.

I was there snapping photos for our upcoming tourism tabloid. I took the obligatory Camel Rock photo, like we needed one more photo of that. The old camel's color may be fading from all the flash bulbs.

I had interviewed Dixie and Bob Dart, proprietors of Rim Rock Dogwood Cabins and decided to photograph a few other places while I was in the area.

High Knob Picnic Area was bursting with wildflowers. Bob Tyson and six other people were up there. Tyson was leading a Sierra Club hike to Hurricane Bluff and invited me to tag along, but I told him I was on the clock and had no time to play. I had a grueling afternoon ahead, taking photos of some of the prettiest places in our area on a sunny spring day.

From High Knob the hills in the distance were a hazy purple, and seemed to stretch forever.

There was also a surprising number of people at Glen O. Jones Lake fishing and camping. It was another unlikely spring break destination.

Little white flowers are out. I should know what they are called, but have never learned them.

The red buds of red bud trees are in full glory.

White daffodils are out.

There was a breeze.

Wednesday's sights, smells and sounds almost made the light snow last week seem an impossibility. But the downed trees everywhere was a regular reminder of the January winter storm.

With the flowers out and the trees just beginning to leaf out it was hard to think about climate change, but it is on the mind of scientists in the Obama administration. In fact, they are talking about the radical possibility of having to release pollution into the atmosphere to block the sun's rays and cause the earth's temperatures to cool. Maybe they could blast our tax dollars into orbit for shade, as much good as those dollars seem to be doing combating the national recession.

Meanwhile, there are news reports a group of scientists are wanting to use lazers to create a new miniature sun for the sake of carbonless energy.

It all sounds awfully dangerous to me.

But these concerns were not on the minds of those bouncing around at Garden of the Gods Wednesday.

There was a young blond woman crouched and taking a photo of whom I assume was her boyfriend or husband. He -- shirtless and tattooed, with shaved head, long orange beard and pierced nipples -- bounced a laughing baby on his knee.

There may be anxiety in the news wires this week, but there seemed to be only joy in the Shawnee National Forest.

-- DeNeal receives e-mail at bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.