Starved Rock Waterfalls

Sunday, I had breakfast at the hotel, then checked out and headed to Starved Rock State Park.  The park is extremely popular, so I wanted to get there early and beat the crowd.  Light morning rain also helped keep the tourists at bay.  Several parking lots were closed due to flooding so I parked at the lodge.  I first headed to French Canyon.  A little spur led into the canyon but I couldn't get all the way to the base due to wet rocks, but could still get a decent view of the falls.

Then I passed back by the lodge and headed towards St. Louis canyon.  Along the way, I passed Aurora and Sec Canyon.  I couldn't find a way to the base of Sec Canyon, but I got an obscured view of the falls from the trail.

Continuing on, there were some interesting sandstone cliffs along the trail.  These too had been vandalized.

Canadian columbine was blooming near here.

At the end of Bluff Trail, a spur led into St. Louis canyon.  There were some great waterleaf flowering in here.

The canyon was really scenic.

And the waterfall at the end was really tall and flowing really well in the high water.

And I had it all to myself.

Hiking back towards the lodge, I made a short detour into Aurora Canyon.  The water was low, but still a nice canyon.

Back at the lodge, I got on the Bluff Trail and headed towards Wildcat Canyon.  A white-tailed deer ran across the trail and stopped long enough for a picture.

I reached Wildcat Canyon at an overlook on the rim.  The main waterfall was visible and there was another smaller one too.

Continuing on, there was another overlook on the other side.

Then, I had to climb the stairs down to get into the canyon.  The waterfall in Wildcat Canyon was another really beautiful one.

More people were entering the canyon so I departed to keep my lead ahead of the crowds and climbed back up the steps.  Continuing on, the trail became really muddy and slick.  And with very steep drop offs, no good options to avoid the mud.  I hiked through the mud along Bluff Trail for a ways; before it ended down at the river, I got a view of the Illinois River from Sandstone Point Overlook.

Then I took the stairs down to river level at Lone Tree Canyon.  No waterfall in this one - just a lone tree.

A little further along the river was the spur to LaSalle Canyon just across the bridge.  More great waterleaf were blooming along this trail.

Soon I made it to the waterfall - I think this was my favorite waterfall and canyon.  The water made a 25-foot veil and then a small cascade into a pool.

This waterfall had probably the best flow of them all.

The trail led behind the waterfall and continued to Tonti Canyon.  There were actually two waterfalls in this canyon, at least today in the high water, but I could only get a good view of one.

Back on the main trail, I hiked along the river and through the mud to the next canyon - Owl Canyon.  A spur led into the canyon, but this one didn't have too much water flowing.

Continuing on, it was more mud to Hennepin Canyon.  The trail passes over the waterfall, but there's no way I could find into the canyon and actually see it.  And the rim was too overgrown to see anything from up here.  Hennepin Overlook was not much further but it was a view of the Illinois River, not the canyon.  From here to the road crossing, the mud was exceptionally bad with almost no breaks.  Shortly after the road, however, I came to two more canyons.  First I headed into Ottawa Canyon and a nice waterfall in here.

The canyon itself was beautiful.

Where there two canyons meet was Council Overhang, a tall overhanging ledge.

It was a little tricky getting into Kaskaskia Canyon and I had to cross the creek a couple times.  But it was short to the scenic waterfall.

This waterfall had some down logs on it, but was really pretty nonetheless.

And this would be my last waterfall of the day.  I had been planning to continue on to Illinois Canyon, but I had had enough of the mud and it was a long hike back.  I stayed close to the river on the hike back and spotted a couple water snakes right at the water's edge.

Just past Lone Tree Canyon was Basswood Canyon, but no waterfall in here.

There were some beautiful Canadian columbine blooming along the river.

I also spotted some wild geranium.

As I got closer to the lodge, I stopped at Eagle Rock Overlook for views of Illinois River.

Lover's Leap Overlook had views on the side of the dam.

There were some white pines and northern white cedar growing here - not a lot of conifers in the park.

I also hiked around the park's namesake, Starved Rock.

There was some invasive honeysuckle flowering here.

By this time, the sun had come out now and it was really crowded so I took off.

After returning the rental car, I checked in to the Holiday Inn and took a shower to get the mud off.  I walked to Giardino's for some Chicago deep dish pizza and then packed up.  The flight home was uneventful and I actually arrived early. 

Midewin Prairie

Saturday morning I had breakfast at the hotel and checked out, then drove back to Illinois.  My first stop was at the visitor center at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.  I spoke with a ranger to get an idea if and where I might see the bison.  They have a webcam on the prairie and it looked like they were in the north of the pasture, but might be difficult to see.  He suggested I hike from the Iron Bridge Trailhead.  Before I left, I looked through the scopes they had set up to see a bald eagle nest.  I could see one parent in the nest and the other on a nearby tree.  A young eagle was also in the nest; he had not yet developed white feathers on his head.  Then I made the short drive to the Iron Bridge trailhead up the road.  Right off the bat, there was a view of Iron Bridge Prairie, one of the areas being restored to natural tallgrass prairie.

It was full of golden Alexanders in waves of yellow.

I like the name of these.  I first hiked Henslow Trail to Route 53 Trail toward the overlook.  Near the northwest corner of the pasture was a huge bison bull, right next to the fence.

I stopped for a couple pictures of this magnificent beast then continued on.  The bison herd was established in 2015 to study the effects they had on prairie restoration.  I did notice a lot of birds and butterflies in this area.

The red-winged blackbirds were striking.

At the southwest bison overlook, I saw a pair of deer but they took off quickly.

The view from the overlook was nice, but I couldn't see the main bison herd.

I continued on Route 53 Trail almost back to the visitor center, but turned around when it started to sprinkle.  It never really rained, but drizzled most of the way back.  The lone bison was in the same spot so I got a couple pictures under better light.

With the herd far off, I was lucky that one chose to graze over here.

Near the start, I got on Group 63 Trail heading northeast.  There were some nice views of wildflower fields along the trail.

It's is named for a group of bunkers used to store munitions when this was a military facility.  Bunker Group 63-1 on the eastern end was open and it was nice and cool inside, as the sun had come back out.

It was interesting to see one of the bunkers up close.

I also saw some silverberry flowering near the entrance.

On the way back, I inadvertently took the spur trail back and could see several more bunkers from the trail, but don't think any were open.

Back at the start, I realized I hadn't taken the main trail back and went a short ways along the southern end of the loop.  Another bunker was open along, but I don't know the number.

I also spotted the Bison herd but they were too far away for a picture.   It was getting pretty hot out now, so I headed back to the car.

Heading west, my next stop was at Matthiessen State Park.  Although not as popular as Starved Rock, the parking here was almost full and it was very crowded.  I hiked down to the big bridge over the creek at Cascade Falls.  The bridge was very muddy so I crossed on the railing.  Going upstream, I hiked to the lake.

Then, I took the interior trail down into the Upper Dells.  Lake Falls was just upstream.

The lighting was poor, but it was really going.  But there were a lot of people here, so I didn't linger too long.  With the high water, heading downstream was mostly creek walking.  The Giant's Bathtub was another very scenic small waterfall.

The sandstone cliffs in the canyon were really beautiful; unfortunately, vandals had carved the rock.

At Cedar Point, where a small tributary flows in, the trail led back up to the top and continued around the Bluff Trail loop.

Past Matthissen Lake, I saw some late spring wildflowers.

Wild geranium and wild blue phlox were blooming.

The trail looped around and crossed the little tributary on a small stone bridge.

The loop went around and down to the Lower Dells, but the the trail to Cascade Falls was closed due to flooding.

Unfortunately, there's no way to see it from the rim.  So I headed back to the car and headed to Peru.

After checking into the La Quinta Inn, I took a dip in the pool to relax a bit and then had dinner at Jalapenos.