Champaign-Urbana is a huge, beautiful place, and I know I always enjoy getting out of class on a cool fall day and taking a walk, stretching my legs and clearing my head. Below are a few of my favorite on-campus adventure walks, though there are probably many more that I just haven’t found yet.

They’re adventure walks because, more often than not, it’s an adventure to get there. 

The Arboretum

The Arboretum is 160-acres of wonder in the University’s south campus. Located just past the intersections of Florida and Lincoln avenues, the beauty of the Arboretum is always exceptional to behold.

Paths wind deep into its heart, and before long, they turn to gravel. It is not uncommon to pass random research facilities surrounded by their greenery. The Arboretum is home to many unique habitats and gardens, including the Hosta Garden, the Noel Welcome Garden, the Sen Cherry Tree Allee and many others. The Arboretum also holds Japan House within its lush borders.

Japan House is made up of three rooms which were constructed in Japan, shipped to the University and reassembled by Japanese carpenters. Japan House is used as a cultural center and a classroom, holding regularly scheduled classes teaching Japanese tea ceremony class, calligraphy class and Japanese art forms. 

South Quad

Noticeable by the bell tower adorned with a Comic Sans-tainted seal underneath, the South Quad is a pretty cool place to kill some time. It’s nice to sit by the bell tower and people-watch if that’s your kind of thing, or just take a long walk around the quad itself and its outlying areas.

It’s always cool to take a walk under the Agriculture Engineering Sciences Building’s tunnel and walk by the art studios. They’re just such cool buildings. In addition, if you just keep walking that direction, you’ll eventually walk past the Morrow Plots, America’s oldest experimental field.

If you walk the opposite way, you’ll eventually end up by the Business Instructional Facility — a hive accommodating innumerable worker bees.

There’s a ton of places to walk from the South Quad and the best thing about this area is that you’ll never end up too far from anywhere — unless you end up by Busey-Evans. 

Engineering Quad

The Engineering Quad is best experienced on a beautiful morning. Just a stone’s throw from the Union, it’s a great place to go with a cup of coffee and a half-hour to kill. The drop before the stream in the center of the quad lends itself to some pretty good photo opportunities in case you’re looking for that new Facebook profile picture.

Tyler is a sophomore in Media. He can be reached at [email protected].