Horseshoe Lake State Park is an Illinois state park in Madison County,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is approximately and surrounds a large

horseshoe-shaped Many shapes have metaphorical names, i.e., their names are metaphors: these shapes are named after a most common object that has it. For example, "U-shape" is a shape that resembles the letter U, a bell-shaped curve has the shape of the vertical ...

lake called Horseshoe Lake. Horseshoe Lake is the second largest natural lake in Illinois taking up approximately of the park. The park has connections to

Madison County Transit Madison County Transit, or MCT for short, is a bus and bike trail transportation system that serves the citizens of Madison County, which is located in Illinois approximately northeast of St. Louis. It was created in 1980 by the Madison County B ...

's Schoolhouse Trail, which connects to over of bike trail in Madison County, and even a trail which goes all of the way to downtown St. Louis after crossing the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

on the Chain of Rocks Bridge. The park is located in southeastern Granite City, Illinois, just a drive northeast of downtown St. Louis.

References

* * State parks of Illinois Protected areas of Madison County, Illinois Metro East {{MadisonCountyIL-geo-stub