indicates that link will open in a new window.Connect With Nature
Outdoor Fitness
The Outdoor Fitness Court, Complex Fields, Playfields, and the Illini Grove are available for you to use as community members of Illinois. Additionally, the Campus Bike Center empowers you with knowledge about how to repair and maintain your bicycles and Adventure Rec provides rentals for outdoor equipment such as tents, kayaks, camping gear, and more for your outdoor activities.
Arboretum
Open from dawn to dusk, you can wander through the Arboretum’s 80-acres of lawns, gardens, and wooded areas in the southeast part of campus along Lincoln Avenue. Walk around the ponds and along our many walkways to discover plantings of native and ornamental trees, shrubs, and perennials. Or just relax while enjoying nature’s serenity.
Japan House
The Japan House aims to make the beauty of traditional Japanese arts and culture accessible to everyone. Visitors can enjoy traditional Japanese gardens, filled with green foliage, rustic stone, and water features that emphasize the natural landscape, creating a peaceful, tranquil environment. The Japan House also offers classes, Tea Ceremony, outdoor meditation, and special events.
Red Oak Rain Garden
The Red Oak Rain Garden is a place to immerse yourself in natural beauty without having to leave campus. It’s welcoming for human and wildlife visitors and is a working garden, designed to soak up rainwater runoff by mimicking natural Illinois landscapes.
Sustainable Student Farm (SSF)
The SSF mission is to serve as an accessible living laboratory for small, diversified farm education and training. We seek to empower students to engage in thoughtful, sustainable, and innovative agricultural practices through outreach, demonstrations, and research. The SSF produces crops for the campus community and for year-round use in the residence halls in partnership with Dining Services. Students can engage with the SSF through our educational programs, volunteer opportunities, or part-time work.
Allerton Park and Retreat Center
The Allerton Park property contains 1,500 acres of woodland and prairie areas, a mansion and reflecting pond, a 10-acre meadow, formal sculpture gardens, hiking trails, a café, and several lodging facilities. Just a 30-minute drive from the Illinois campus, away from the distractions and noise of everyday life, Allerton offers a unique opportunity to experience art, nature, and history.
