Champaign County Forest Preserve Egg Hunt

There is one Egg Hunt in Champaign County that has not been canceled: the Champaign County Forest Preserve’s annual Egg Hunt begins March 23, 2020.

For the last three years, the Champaign County Forest Preserve has encouraged residents to step outside in their five parks: Lake of the Woods, Homer Lake, Middle Fork, Sangamon River, and Riverbend to search for large, painted eggs made from concrete placed along trails and points of interest. 

While many familiar activities have been canceled to “flatten the curve” of COVID-19, the outdoor facilities of the Champaign County Forest Preserve Parks remain open. 

This year, CCFPD has placed 10 eggs at Lake of the Woods, 8 eggs in the Botanical Garden, 2 eggs at River Bend, 2 eggs at Sangamon River, 4 eggs at Middle Fork River and 4 eggs at Homer Lake.

Guests are encouraged to “hunt” for the eggs while enjoying the outdoor spaces, but the CCFPD encourages people to keep their distance from each other. 

Egg hunters are encouraged to post their egg sightings on social media. After all, that is how the projected, the idea of Lake of the Woods Assistant Superintendent Michael Dale, took flight. 

Dale, who has small children at home, came up with the idea to place eggs throughout the park during the mid-winter months. Originally, he was going to use large plastic eggs, but after thinking about how they might blow away or be stolen, he decided to pour concrete into the egg shells.

Once hardened, Lake of the Woods employees decorated the eggs with designs from the Minions Movie, Angry Birds, Emojis, Ninja Turtles and M&Ms, among others.