The entire complex is day trip. The overlook, the fort mounds, the cemetery, and the connected Menard house sheds light on early Illinois European colonization history.
Fort Kaskaskia State Historic Site is a 200-acre park near Chester, Illinois, on a blufftop overlooking the Mississippi River and offers scenic views of the American Bottoms, the confluence of the Mississippi and Kaskaskia rivers, and the site of the original town of Kaskaskia, which was once the first state capitol of Illinois. It commemorates the vanished frontier town of Old Kaskaskia and the support it gave to George Rogers Clark in the American Revolution. Fort Kaskaskia features a campground, three pavillions furnished with picnic tables, grills, water, and electricity as well as numerous picnic tables and grills tht can be found throughout the site.
