Wednesday, June 04, 2003
Starved Rock SP, Utica, IL - June 2-4
This park is located in Central Illinois and was chosen because of its reputation for lovely hiking trails and interesting birds. It is best known for its fascinating rock formations and for the sparkling waterfalls formed by spring runoff at the head of its 18 canyons. Unfortunately, we were too late in the year for waterfalls and most of the interesting birds had moved on, but we got to walk on some of the trails. With the weather being "iffy", we opted for a drive through Marseilles and Ottawa and back to Utica and Peru one day. Sounds a lot more "international" than central IL! We visited briefly Illini SP, which we found to be undesirable for future camping. We stopped at Buffalo Rock SP, a day use area noted for the "Effigy Tumuli", a form of earth art as a tribute to Indian mounds, located atop a 1 1/2-mile-long bluff. The ground has been sculpted (using heavy equipment) into a snake, a turtle, a catfish, a frog and a water strider. We hiked the trail past several of them, and quite honestly, we wouldn't have known they were there if not for the interpretive signage.
We also stopped at the Illinois Waterway Visitor Center on the Illinois & Michigan Canal at Lock #13 along the waterway. It is located right across the river from Starved Rock so we could see the people atop the rock while watching the barges being pushed & pulled through the lock. It is very slow going but fascinating to watch. Being a bargeman is an occupation that takes a lot of patience.
On the day with nicer weather, we went hiking at Starved Rock and also at nearby Matthiessen SP (a day use area). We only had time to do the main Starved Rock trail, where we could view the river and see the lock & dam from the opposite side of the river. We also walked around the lovely lodge which was built by the CCC in the 1930s. The grounds around the lodge had 23 totem-like sculptures of animals (and one of Abe Lincoln) carved by chainsaw into dead tree trunks. Unfortunately, we were only able to hike one of the canyons. There are many interesting trails to come back for. Matthiessen SP is also a lovely wooded canyon area that was formerly a private park. It consists mainly of one long narrow canyon with a stream running through it. There are many rock formations, which are called "dells", which were formed by the flowing water. It is a lovely, peaceful area with the sound of water flowing everywhere. It is quite small, so we were able to hike both the Upper and Lower Dell trail.# posted by Doug and Willie @ 5:15 PM 
