Starved Rock Area (Illinois)

 Last week we spent Tuesday-Friday in Illinois. Starved Rock State Park is about 2 hours southwest of Chicago. We got into some rain on Tuesday afternoon about 30 minutes from our destination. It rained most of the night.

We rented through VRBO a villa (condo) at Grand Bear Resort. This is minutes from the state park. 

We were unit 3. Unit 4 on the end behind our car was occupied, but the other two were not. There are buildings just like this labeled A-Y and 1-20? Potential for a lot of people, but during mid-week in spring definitely not full.

The condo was nicely decorated with a well-stocked kitchen though other than microwaving restaurant left-overs and making coffee we didn't use it. The master bedroom had a spa tub, fireplace, king-sized bed. The whole house was decorated in a lodge theme.

We sat on the back patio to read our books one afternoon.

Throughout the resort grounds and the state park and nearby towns there were honeysuckle bushes in bloom.

After I had walked to the area facing our patio to take the above photo, I turned around to be greeted by these.

They didn't bark. They stood still staring out at me. I saw them a few other times at the front of unit 4 staring as we got into our car.

There was a stream running through the area near where we parked.

After the rainy Tuesday, we decided to hike Wednesday morning in Matthiessen Park which is associated with Starved Rock but became public land in 1918 whereas Starved Rock officially became a state park in 1908.

As we expected, Matthiessen was extremely muddy. A prominent "feature" of both of these parks are stairs, beaucoup steps to get from one level to another, bluff to canyon bottoms and back. These stairs did us in after traversing them two days. We decided we had enough (pain in calves) and reduced the sites to which we would hike on Thursday. We should have visited and hiked places like these 10 years ago. However, we did enjoy the few places we saw.

We ate breakfast Wednesday at the Lodge at Starved Rock. It didn't start serving until 8 a.m., but the weather was iffy enough we weren't sure we would be able to hike in the morning anyway.

The hotel was built by the Civilian Conservation Corp in the 1930's during the Depression.

By the time we finished breakfast it was almost 9 a.m, the opening time for the Visitor Center. We spent a little time on the hotel grounds admiring the wooden figures. 

There were patches of blue sky. We asked a few questions at the Visitor Center and headed for Matthiessen. The canyon here is called the Dells, and the area is shown on some maps and GPS as Deer Park because the wealthy owner encouraged that animal to inhabit his land. 

We saw a few wildflowers, but not many in this park. In the summer there are fields of sunflowers near the park which attract crowds.

Matthiessen is known for trails where fording the creek is a big part of the experience. 

After seeing several people make it across the stones but fall off the unsteady jerry-rigged lumber because of the higher water level from the rain, I decided I didn't want to cross. You could walk on stone ledges at the edge of the canyon walls to hike further once across and explore small waterfalls which didn't look that exciting from my perch on the stairway. Matthiessen also has horse trails.

We went to "downtown" Utica for dinner that night. They have shut off the main block to vehicles and set up tables and chairs outside the restaurants and bars for al fresco dining. Our server at the pizza place said they started doing that in 2020 because of the pandemic and continued until cold weather. Now that spring is here it has been set up again.

Barrels of flowers served as the closure barriers.

Thursday morning we went back to the Utica "plaza" but ate inside Joy and Ed's. Well fortified for the day, we drove to the entrance to the trail to St. Louis Canyon right across from Grand Bear Resort on Highway 178.

On this trail we saw more flowers and an interesting tree.

These wildflowers had been planted next to the visitor center. We did see some red Columbine along the trails.

We decided to tackle Starved Rock. Steps, steps, and more steps. It was worth the effort for the view.

The Starved Rock Dam blocks river traffic so a set of locks to the side accommodates boats and barges. The big white vehicle across the river is a tug boat.

The rock is not far from the Lodge/Hotel, but it is not an easy stroll. All those steps to climb upwards remember. 

This plaque honoring those who died in various wars sits on top of the rock. Behind it is a flagpole with the American flag.

There is an island in the middle of the river with birds.

Before heading back to the condo to eat left-overs for lunch, we crossed the Illinois River and drove to the locks. There is a nice little museum, but it is still closed because of the pandemic. The observation decks outside were open to visitors however. The locks are almost directly across from Starved Rock.

You can see the flagpole on Starved Rock quite clearly.

We were lucky because within about 10 minutes of getting to the locks, the white tug started pushing some barges.

We spent the afternoon in Ottawa. This is much larger than the other towns we visited in the area. We stopped at Tone's Cones for an ice cream cone, 229 Estates Antique Store where I bought a pottery jug, and Goodwill where I bought a biography of Abigail Adams and a few other items.

We ate in local restaurants, not chain franchises. Two of our favorites were The Root Beer Stand in Oglesby, a true carhop experience with frosted mugs of root beer, and Haze Restaurant in LaSalle.

They serve the sauce on the side at The Haze Smokehouse. I tried the "sweet" one; it was OK, but really I enjoyed the half slab of ribs most without sauce. Such good smoked meat flavor.

We chose to dine on the patio. Very pleasant out there.

It was a great time away for a few days, the first vacation in a year for us. We did discover why we need investment in infrastructure. The roads, even I-80, were abominable with so many rough surfaces and potholes.